Tips & Tricks
Rectangular Selection
If you use development build, you probably noticed that NetBeans editor added Rectangular Selection action. I don't need this functionality every day, but it can be helpful in some case. One of such case is when you need to delete line numbers in a text or code copied from a tutorial. Like on the picture below. You can select the rectangle after pressing Rectangular Selection toggle button in the editor toolbar or pressing CTRL+SHIFT+R shortcut. The selection can be easily...
Thursday, October 20, 2011 | Tips & Tricks | Read More
Adding a ShortCut for Generation PHP Documentation
This is a tip how to add a shortcut for generating PHP Doc for a class or method / function. Probably every body who uses PHP editor in NetBeans knows that if you write start of PHP Documentation /** just before a class or method/function and hit ENTER, then NetBeans tries to finished the PHP Documentation and adds PHP Doc tag, if there are needed. This feature is not implemented as an action, it's based on the code that checks what is written on the line after pressing...
Thursday, June 2, 2011 | Tips & Tricks | Read More
Using Tabulator for Indentation
Yesterday I run into an issue that a user wants to use tabulator character for indentation level. Because I answer similar question often, I will try to explain it here. By default NetBeans editors use for indentation level 4 spaces and don't use tabulator character (\t). When you press Tab key, then NetBeans place caret on the column that corresponds to the next indentation level and the difference is filled with spaces. So by default pressing Tab key adds 4 spaces. If you...
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 | Tips & Tricks | Read More
Is the IDE Slow? Send a Profiling Snapshot
In NetBeans 6.9 is available Profile me Now! feature as well for PHP distribution. This feature generate a snapshot to understand what's going on if you think that the IDE is slow. By default the feature is not visible and you have to enable the IDE's self-profiling feature. Go to View main menu, then choose Toolbar and enable Memory toolbar. Now you should see Memory toolbar and also Profile Me button. Prepare the IDE for the operation that seems to be slow. Press the Profile...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 | Tips & Tricks | Read More
Enable auto-scanning of sources - Scan for External Changes
NetBeans 6.9 contains a feature that automatically looks for external changes to keep informations about files up-to-date. We have some reports that it can slow down NetBeans mainly, when an open project has many folders. When NetBeans find out that files were externally changed, it re-scans the files to keep data up-to-date that are used with features like code completion, navigation etc. Unfortunately the notification and following re-scanning can take some time and during...
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 | Tips & Tricks | Read More
CTRL+TAB tip
Probably the last tip is the IDE status bar that could help you in situation, where you have opened more files with the same name. The status bar displays full file path of the selected file in the popup window that is displayed during switching between opened files in the editor through CTRL+TAB short cut. I have also created four issues, the issue #178090 that explains the problem and is basically umbrella for three issues: #178091 - Display in title bar path for the edited...