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1page.title=Android Studio Tips and Tricks
2@jd:body
3
4<div id="qv-wrapper">
5<div id="qv">
6
7    <h2>In this document</h2>
8    <ol>
9      <li><a href="#productivity-features">Productivity Features</a></li>
10      <li><a href="#intellij">Working with IntelliJ</a></li>
11      <li><a href="#key-commands">Key Commands</a></li>
12    </ol>
13
14  <h2>See also</h2>
15  <ol>
16    <li><a href="{@docRoot}sdk/index.html">Download Android Studio</a></li>
17    <li><a href="http://wiki.jetbrains.net/intellij/Android">IntelliJ IDEA Android Tutorials</a></li>
18    <li><a href="http://confluence.jetbrains.com/display/IntelliJIDEA/FAQ+on+Migrating+to+IntelliJ+IDEA">IntelliJ FAQ on migrating to IntelliJ IDEA</a></li>
19  </ol>
20
21</div>
22</div>
23
24<p>If you're unfamiliar with using Android Studio and the IntelliJ IDEA interface, this page
25provides some tips to help you get started with some of the most common tasks and productivity
26enhancements. </p>
27
28
29<h2 id="productivity-features">Productivity Features</h2>
30
31<p>Android Studio includes a number of features to help you be more productive in your coding.
32This section notes a few of the key features to help you work quickly and efficiently.
33</p>
34
35
36<h3>Smart Rendering</h3>
37<p>With smart rendering, Android Studio displays links for quick fixes to rendering errors.
38For example, if you add a button to the layout without specifying the <em>width</em> and
39<em>height</em> atttributes, Android Studio displays the rendering message <em>Automatically
40add all missing attributs</em>. Clicking the message adds the missing attributes to the layout.</p>
41
42
43<h3> Bitmap rendering in the debugger</h3>
44<p>While debugging, you can now right-click on bitmap variables in your app and invoke
45<em>View Bitmap</em>. This fetches the associated data from the debugged process and renders
46the bitmap in the debugger. </p>
47<p><img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-bitmap-rendering.png" style="width:350px"/></p>
48<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> Bitmap Rendering</p>
49
50
51<h3>Output window message filtering</h3>
52<p>When checking build results, you can filter messages by <em>message type</em> to quickly
53locate messages of interest.</p>
54<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-outputwindowmsgfiltering.png" style="width:200px"style="width:200px" />
55<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 2.</strong> Filter Build Messages</p>
56
57
58<h3>Hierarchical parent setting</h3>
59<p>The activity parent can now be set in the Activity Wizard when creating a new
60activity. Setting a <em>hierarchal parent</em> sets the {@code Up} button to automatically
61appear in the app's Action bar when viewing a child activity, so the {@code Up}
62button no longer needs to be manually specified in the <em>menu.xml</em> file.</p>
63
64
65<h3>Creating layouts</h3>
66<p>Android Studio offers an advanced layout editor that allows you to drag-and-drop widgets
67into your layout and preview your layout while editing the XML.</p>
68
69<p>While editing in the <strong>Text</strong> view, you can preview the layout on devices by
70opening the <strong>Preview</strong> pane available on the right side of the window. Within the
71Preview pane, you can modify the preview by changing various options at the top of the pane,
72including the preview device, layout theme, platform version and more. To preview the layout on
73multiple devices simultaneously, select <strong>Preview All Screen Sizes</strong> from the
74device drop-down.</p>
75<p><img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-previewall.png" style="width:350px"/></p>
76<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 3.</strong> Preview All Screens</p>
77
78<p>You can switch to the graphical editor by clicking <strong>Design</strong> at the
79bottom of the window. While editing in the Design view, you can show and hide the
80widgets available to drag-and-drop by clicking <strong>Palette</strong> on the left side of the
81window. Clicking <strong>Designer</strong> on the right side of the window reveals a panel
82with a layout hierarchy and a list of properties for each view in the layout.</p>
83
84
85<h2 id="intellij">Working with IntelliJ</h3>
86
87<p>This section list just a few of the code editing
88practices you should consider using when creating Android Studio apps. </p>
89
90<p>For complete user documentation for the IntelliJ IDEA interface (upon which Android Studio
91is based), refer to the
92<a href="http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/documentation/index.jsp">IntelliJ IDEA documentation</a>.</p>
93
94
95<h3><em>Alt + Enter</em> key binding</h3>
96<p>For quick fixes to coding errors, the IntelliJ powered IDE implements the <em>Alt + Enter</em>
97key binding to fix errors (missing imports, variable assignments, missing references, etc) when
98possible, and if not, suggest the most probable solution. </p>
99
100
101<h3><em>Ctrl + D</em> key binding</h3>
102<p>The <em>Ctrl + D</em> key binding is great for quickly duplicating code lines or fragments.
103Simply select the desired line or fragment and enter this key binding. </p>
104
105
106<h3>Navigate menu</h3>
107<p>In case you're not familiar with an API class, file or symbol, the <em>Navigate</em> menu lets
108you jump directly to the class of a method or field name without having to search through
109individual classes. </p>
110
111
112<h3>Inspection scopes</h3>
113<p>Scopes set the color of code segments for easy code identification and location. For example,
114you can set a scope to identify all code related to a specific action bar.   </p>
115
116
117<h3>External annotations</h3>
118<p>Specify annotations within the code or from an external annotation file. The Android Studio
119IDE keeps track of the restrictions and validates compliance, for example setting the data type
120of a string as not null.</p>
121
122
123<h3>Injecting languages</h3>
124<p>With language injection, the Android Studio IDE allows you to work with islands of different
125languages embedded in the source code. This extends the syntax, error highlighting and coding
126assistance to the embedded language. This can be especially useful for checking regular expression
127values inline, and validating XML and SQL statments.</p>
128
129
130<h3>Code folding</h3>
131<p>This allows you to selectively hide and display sections of the code for readability. For
132example, resource expressions or code for a nested class can be folded or hidden in to one line
133to make the outer class structure easier to read. The inner clas can be later expanded for
134updates. </p>
135
136
137<h3>Image and color preview</h3>
138<p>When referencing images and icons in your code, a preview of the image or icon appears
139(in actual size at different densities) in the code margin to help you verify the image or icon
140reference.  Pressing {@code F1} with the preview image or icon selected displays resource asset
141details, such as the <em>dp</em> settings.   </p>
142
143<h3>Quick F1 documentation</h3>
144<p>You can now inspect theme attributes using <strong>View > Quick Documentation</strong>
145(<strong>F1</strong>),
146see the theme inheritance hierarchy, and resolve values for the various attributes.</p>
147
148<p>If you invoke <strong> View > Quick Documentation</strong> (usually bound to F1) on the theme
149attribute <em>?android:textAppearanceLarge</em>, you will see the theme inheritance hierarchy and
150resolved values for the various attributes that are pulled in.</p>
151
152
153<h3>New Allocation Tracker integration in the Android/DDMS window</h3>
154<p>You can now inspect theme attributes using <strong> View > Quick Documentation
155</strong> <code>F1</code>, see the theme inheritance hierarchy, and resolved values for the
156various attributes.</p>
157<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/studio-allocationtracker.png" style="width:300px" />
158<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 4.</strong> Allocation Tracker</p>
159
160
161<h3 id="key-commands">Keyboard Commands</h3>
162
163<p>The following tables list keyboard shortcuts for common operations.</p>
164
165<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> This section lists Android Studio keyboard shortcuts
166for the default keymap. To change the default keymap on Windows and Linux, go to
167<strong>File</strong> &gt; <strong>Settings</strong> &gt; <strong>Keymap</strong>. If you're
168using Mac OS X, update your keymap to use the Mac OS X 10.5+ version keymaps under
169<strong>Android Studio > Preferences > Keymap</strong>.</p>
170
171
172<p class="table-caption"><strong>Table 1.</strong> Programming key commands</p>
173<table>
174<tr><th>Action</th><th>Android Studio Key Command</th></tr>
175
176<tr>
177  <td>Command look-up (autocomplete command name)</td>
178  <td>CTRL + SHIFT + A</td>
179</tr>
180
181<tr>
182  <td>Project quick fix</td>
183  <td>ALT + ENTER</td>
184</tr>
185
186<tr>
187  <td>Reformat code</td>
188  <td>CTRL + ALT + L (Win)<br>
189      OPTION + CMD + L (Mac)</td>
190</tr>
191
192<tr>
193  <td>Show docs for selected API</td>
194  <td>CTRL + Q (Win)<br>
195      F1 (Mac)</td>
196</tr>
197
198<tr>
199  <td>Show parameters for selected method</td>
200  <td>CTRL + P</td>
201</tr>
202
203<tr>
204  <td>Generate method</td>
205  <td>ALT + Insert (Win)<br>
206      CMD + N (Mac)</td>
207</tr>
208
209<tr>
210  <td>Jump to source</td>
211  <td>F4 (Win)<br>
212      CMD + down-arrow (Mac)</td>
213</tr>
214
215<tr>
216  <td>Delete line</td>
217  <td>CTRL + Y (Win)<br>
218      CMD + Backspace (Mac)</td>
219</tr>
220
221<tr>
222  <td>Search by symbol name</td>
223  <td>CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + N (Win)<br>
224      OPTION + CMD + O (Mac)</td>
225</tr>
226
227</table>
228
229
230
231
232<p class="table-caption"><strong>Table 2.</strong> Project and editor key commands</p>
233<table>
234<tr><th>Action</th><th>Android Studio Key Command</th></tr>
235
236<tr>
237  <td>Build</td>
238  <td>CTRL + F9 (Win)<br>
239      CMD + F9 (Mac)</td>
240</tr>
241
242<tr>
243  <td>Build and run</td>
244  <td>SHIFT + F10 (Win)<br>
245      CTRL + R (Mac)</td>
246</tr>
247
248<tr>
249  <td>Toggle project visibility</td>
250  <td>ALT + 1 (Win)<br>
251      CMD + 1 (Mac)</td>
252</tr>
253
254<tr>
255  <td>Navigate open tabs</td>
256  <td>ALT + left-arrow; ALT + right-arrow (Win)<br>
257      CTRL + left-arrow; CTRL + right-arrow (Mac)</td>
258</tr>
259
260</table>
261
262<p>For a complete keymap reference guide, see the
263<a href="http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/documentation/index.jsp">IntelliJ IDEA</a>
264documentation.</p>
265