Insider Scoop From the Tutorial Divas

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The other day, Tor Norbye sent us an email listing some NetBeans Ruby navigation shortcuts, which we thought we'd highlight in the blog. We did a little further research on the subject and also list here some favorite user shortcuts that we undercovered.

(For a complete list of NetBeans Ruby Keyboard Shortcuts, see Ruby Shortcuts).

Navigation Shortcuts

Navigation is important - jumping between files and their tests, or between Rails actions and views. Here are some navigation shortcuts:

If you're in a controller file, and realize you need to modify its corresponding view, press Ctrl-Shift-A (Command-Shift-A on the Mac) to jump to it. Press again to go in the opposite direction.

Similarly, if you're in a Rails controller file (for example) and want to go edit its unit test, hit Ctrl-Shift-T (Command-Shift-T on the Mac) to jump to it - and again to jump back.

User Favorite Shortcuts

Here are some more frequently used shortcuts.

Action	Shortcut	Mac Shortcut
Show code completion alternatives	Ctrl-Space. If Ctrl-Space does not work for your language, try using Ctrl-\	Ctrl-Space
Open File by name prefix (not path)	Alt-Shift-O	Ctrl-Shift-O
Show name of current parameter (when editing an argument list for a method call)	Ctrl-P	Command-P
Format Code	Alt-Shift-F	Ctrl-Shift-F
Reformat the current comment paragraph	Ctrl-Shift-P	Command-Shift-P
Jump to matching parenthesis / brace / bracket, or other matching	Ctrl-[	Command-[
Show Documentation	Ctrl-Shift-Space	Command-Shift-Space

NetBeans Shortcuts

You can download a shortcut card that lists the highlights of the NetBeans IDE 6.0 keyboard shortcuts and code templates. In the NetBeans IDE, choose Help > Keyboard Shortcuts Card from the main menu. Similarly, you can view the shortcuts online from the NetBeans IDE 6.0 Keyboard Shortcuts Specification.