Main Menu and Toolbar Reference

This section is a quick reference to the main menu and toolbar of the IDL Workbench.

This list describes the items in the main menu as it appears in Microsoft Windows. There are differences between the main menu on Windows and Mac platforms, which are as follows:

File

New

 

Start a wizard to open a new project, or choose from other actions. (Alt+Shift+N)

New Pro File

Create a new file in the Editor view. (Ctrl+N)

New Project

Create a New IDL Project dialog using a dialog.

New ENVI Extension

 

Create a new ENVI extension using a dialog.

Open

Open a file in the Editor view. (Ctrl+O)

Recent Files

 

Open a file from a list of the most recently accessed files.

Close

 

Close the file selected in the Editor view. (Ctrl+W)

Close All

 

Close all files in the Editor view. (Ctrl+Shift+W)

Save

Save the file selected in the Editor view. (Ctrl+S)

Save As

 

Save the file selected in the Editor view to a new filename.

Save All

Save all open files. (Ctrl+Shift+S)

Rename

 

Rename the selected file in the Project Explorer view. (F2)

Refresh

 

Refresh the contents displayed in the Project Explorer view. (F5)

Print

 

Print the file selected in the Editor view. (Ctrl+P)

Import

 

Start the Import wizard, which has multiple options to import files, preferences, and more.

Export

 

Start the Export wizard, which has multiple options to export files, preferences, and more.

Properties

 

View information about the file selected in the Editor view. (Alt+Enter)

Switch Workspace

 

Switch to a different IDL workspace. IDL will exit and restart to use the selected workspace.

Restart

 

Exit then restart IDL.

Exit

 

Exit IDL.

Edit

Undo

Cancel the previous action. (Ctrl+Z, or Command+Z on Mac)

Redo

Cancel the previous Undo command. (Ctrl+Y)

Cut

Cut the text selected in the Editor view. (Ctrl+X)

Copy

Copy the selected text from the Editor or Console view to the clipboard. It also copies files from the Project Explorer view, variable information (as text) in the Variables view, and commands from the Command History view. (Ctrl+C).

Paste

Paste the copied text or command. (Ctrl+V).

Delete

 

Delete selected item. (Delete)

Select All

 

Select all content in the active view (i.e., Editor, Console, Command History, etc.). (Ctrl+A)

Find/Replace

 

Search, or search and replace, specified text in the Editor or Console views.(Ctrl+F)

Find Next

 

Locate the next instance of the text specified in Find/Replace. (F3)

Find Previous

 

Locate the previous instance of the text specified in Find/Replace. (F4)

Search

 

Search files for a specified string and display the results in the Search view. (Ctrl+H)

Set Encoding

 

Set the encoding (default UTF-8) for the file selected in the Editor view.

Back

Toggle the Editor view back through the recent files list. Or, click the arrow to choose the desired file from the drop-down list. (Alt+Left Arrow)

Forward

Toggle the Editor view forward through the recent files list. Or, click the arrow to choose the desired file from the drop-down list. (Alt+Right Arrow)

Source

Toggle Comment

Toggle the selected line between comment and code. (Ctrl+;)

Add File Comments

Input IDLdoc-style comments for the file (https://github.com/mgalloy/idldoc).

Add Routine Comments

Input IDLdoc style comments for the routine.

Open Declaration

Open the .pro code for a selected call to a user defined routine. (Ctrl+F3)

To Uppercase

Change the selected text to uppercase. (Ctrl+Shift+U)

To Lowercase

Change the selected text to lowercase. (Ctrl+U)

Format

Automatically format the selected text or the file in View.

Shift Right

Shift the selected text or the entire file to the right.

Shift Left

Shift the selected text or the entire file to the left.

Content Assist

Provides content to help enter commands. (Ctrl+Space)

Code Templates

Provides templates to help write IDL code.

Project

Open Project

Open the selected project from the Project Explorer view.

Close Project

Close the selected project. Resource files in a closed project cannot be changed or accessed by the development environment. Closed projects take up a lot less memory.

Build All

Build all projects that are currently open in the Project Explorer.

Build Project

Build the selected open project according to the IDL Build Properties. By default, IDL will compile all .pro code in the project, execute RESOLVE_ALL, and create a save file with the project's name. (Ctrl+B)

Build Working Set

Select the working set to build.

Apply Patch Start the Patch wizard and apply a code patch.

Set Selection as Current Working Directory

Set the directory of the selected project as the working directory.

Properties

Set properties for the selected project.

Macros

  • IDL Converter
  • Opens a dialog in which to convert units (e.g., feet to meters).
    Edit Macros  

    Assign IDL code to icons and keyboard shortcuts. You can use macros for tasks that you repeat often or want to simplify. When you add custom macros, you can define:

    • The IDL code that the macro runs
    • The macro name and menu label
    • An icon to display next to the menu item
    • A custom tooltip to display when hovering over the menu item
    • A keyboard shortcut to run the macro

    Run

    Compile

    Compile the file selected in the Editor view. (Ctrl+F8).

    Run Run the file selected in the Editor view. (F8).

    Resume

    Resume running the file.

    Stop

    Stop execution. (Ctrl+F2)

    Step In

    Step through the code line by line. If a command is defined in .pro code, the file will be opened in the editor and stepped though this code line by line. (F5)

    Step Over

    Steps through code in the current scope line by line. (F6)

    Step Out

    Executes remaining code in the current scope, then moves to the next line of higher scope. (F7)

    Skip

     

    Skip a line when debugging. (Ctrl+Shift+F6)

    Reset Session

    Executes .RESET_SESSION to reset much of the state of an IDL session, without requiring you to exit and restart the IDL session. After the reset is complete, if a start-up file is specified, it is run.

    Run Selected Text

     

    Execute the commands selected in the Editor view. (Shift+F8)

    Print, <selected text>

     

    Run the selected text and print the result. This is useful when debugging. For example, highlight a variable and print its value.

    Run Project

     

    Execute the save file created by Build Project. (Ctrl+Shift+F8)

    Run to Line

     

    When debugging, execute the code until it reaches the cursor's location. (Ctrl+R)

    Show Code Coverage

     

    Toggle on or off highlighting code lines that have been executed.

    Toggle Breakpoint

     

    Add or Remove a breakpoint at the line selected by the cursor. (Ctrl+Shift+B)

    Remove all Breakpoints

     

    Remove all breakpoints.

    Window

    Editor Editor view controls.
    Appearance IDL Workbench controls, including show/hide the toolbar and status bar.

    Show View

    Open other IDL Workbench views.

    Source Control Tools

    Access to source code repositories.

    Breakpoints

    Show the location of breakpoints in the code. (Alt+Shift+Q, b)

    Class Hierarchy

    Display a hierarchy of all of the objects used in the program in the Editor view.

    Command History

    Display the Command History view.

    IDL Console

    Show the IDL Console view. (Ctrl+I)

    Outline

    Show a tree hierarchy view of procedures and functions included in the selected program file in the Editor view. (Alt+Shift+Q, o)

    Profiler

    Show the Profiler view. This is useful to test the speed of your code.

    Project Explorer

    Show a directory tree for projects in the IDL Workbench.

    Variables

    Show information about the defined variables in the Variables view. (Alt+Shift+Q, v)

    Perspective

    Customize and save the view layout or open saved layouts of the Workbench views. Also, reset the layout to the default when you have undocked tabs from the Workbench and moved tabs around.

    Increase Font Size

    Increase the font size in the Editor and IDL Console views. (Ctrl++).

    Decrease Font Size

    Decrease the font size in the Editor and IDL Console views. (Ctrl+-).

    Preferences

    Open the IDL Preferences dialog box.

    Help

    Help on Selected Item

    Display Help that corresponds to the selected item selected by the cursor.

    Help

    Display Help for the text selected in the Editor view in the Console view.

    Help Contents

    Open the IDL Help system.

    Show Active Keybindings

    Shows the keyboard shortcuts available in the development environment.

    Eclipse User Storage

    This option is added when the Marketplace Client is installed. It includes options to access your Eclipse account and Marketplace favorites.

    Install New Software

    Install Eclipse Marketplace or other plug-in software.

    Eclipse Marketplace

    If the Marketplace Client is installed, use this to select and install Eclipse plug-ins.

    Check for Updates

    Check to determine if the IDL version is up-to-date.

    About IDL

    Show the IDL version, build ID, and copyright information.

    IDL (Mac Only)

    About IDL

    Show the IDL version, build ID, and copyright information.

    Preferences

    Open the IDL Preferences dialog box.

    Services

    Mac Services menu.

    Hide IDL

    Minimize the IDL Workbench. (Command+H)

    Hide Others

    Minimize all open programs other than IDL.

    Show All

    Maximize all open programs.

    Quit IDL

    Close the IDL Workbench. (Command+Q)

    Version History

    7.0

    Introduced

    8.8.0

    Remove Macros from Toolbar