My IntelliJ IDEA setup
Tags: setup, intellij, ide
Published: 2018-06-10 01:20:05

---
title: My IntelliJ IDEA setup
published: true
description: Making yourself at home is essential for productivity.
tags: setup, intellij, ide
cover_image: https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/pi057v7ahw5cbxcj19d1.jpeg
---

<center>_Photo by [Dominik Scythe](https://unsplash.com/@drscythe) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com)_</center>

Making yourself at home is essential for productivity. Whether that's using your favorites [extensions](https://dev.to/chrisvasqm/must-have-extensions-for-vs-code-according-to-me-dho) in your favorite editor or having the _right_ height for your chair and desk, we all have our personal preferences.

Today, I would like to share some small changes I do every time I have a fresh installation of IntelliJ IDEA.

> _Note: Any of the following configurations can be used on any IntelliJ based IDEs, like: Riders, Webstorm, Android Studio, PHPStorm, etc._

## Changing the default font

[Fira Code](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode) has quickly become my favorite because not only does it read well, but has support for _font ligatures_, which makes certain symbols combine or alter their way of being rendered while you are coding.

In order to so:

1. Open the `Settings` window in the `File` menu or by pressing `CTRL + ALT + S`/`Command + ,` on Windows or MacOS respectively.
2. On the left panel, select the `Editor` category and the click on `Font`.

Now, luckily for us, every JetBrain's IDE comes with Fira Code installed by default, so we don't have to do anything other than selecting it from the Font's dropdown menu.

> _Note: If you like the way font ligatures look like, make sure to also check the `Enable font ligatures` on that window._

Here's how my settings look like:

![Font settings](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/aqrwneyik27zmvdwp4wh.png)

To know more about it, checkout their GitHub's repository:

{% github tonsky/FiraCode %}

## Removing case sensitivity

The default behaviour is that in order for the Editor's auto completion to pop up for classes names, we need to write it's name starting with a capital letter, which to me is a little bit cumbersome, and I find that without this the IDE still does a great job at predicting what I want to type.

To be able to do this, we have to:

1. Open the `Settings` window in the `File` menu or by pressing `CTRL + ALT + S`/`Command + ,` on Windows or MacOS respectively.
2. On the left panel, select the `Editor` category, expand the `General` menu and choose the `Code Completion` option.
3. Select the `None` option from the `Case sensitive completion` dropdown.

Example:

I made a `Pizza` class and as I'm making a new instance of it, the auto completion pops up:

![Auto completion without case sensitivity](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/whwlnylajff8vhu1zwmp.png)

Now go ahead and try it out for yourself and see if it works for you :)

## Helpful plugins

These days, IDEs come with so many helpful features out of the box, but these plugins can be that cherry on top of your delicious ice cream:


### [.ignore](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7495--ignore) 
_by [Jakub Chrzanowsk](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/author/f2b75a1e-da67-470d-83c9-1b23a889b64e)_

I use this one to automatically find files that are not being tracked by Git and add them to my .gitignore. It can even detect if your project doesn't have a .gitignore file and create it for you.

### [Markdown support](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7793-markdown-support) 
_by [Valentin Fondaratov](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/author/4f781b7c-2f50-433a-be13-3ce148c29009), [Anna Kutarba](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/author/2e4cc1fe-1bbf-4549-88f8-99cbdc61a397), [Dmitry Krasilschikov](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/author/Dmitry%20Krasilschikov)_

This one adds both support for _.md_ files (like README, CONTRIBUTING) that are commonly used in Git repositories with a previewer as a side panel that let's you see how everything looks while you write your Markdown.

## Aaand that's pretty much it

I also like to play around with a few keyboard shortcuts here and there, but I try not to customize it too much in order to reduce any frustration from me or others when switching from one computer to the other.