Steven Levine
Steven Levine
1 min read

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Do you want to learn all of the keyboard shortcuts to your favorite Java IDE, but just don’t have time to study a cheat sheet? Are you envious of your team lead because when you peer program with them, they are able to get things done without using the mouse?

You ask your self how did they do it? Do they memorize a cheat sheet while on the Subway? Do they go home and practice coding every night? Are they gifted with great memories? Well, they may be all of these things, but you don’t have to be!

All you need to do is install a plugin called Key Promoter that is available for both Intellij and Eclipse. The way it works is every time you use your mouse to accomplish a task that can be accomplished via a keyboard shortcut, it pops up a window and lets you know. In the Intellij version, it actually keeps track of how many times you used your mouse for each action. It becomes insulting after a while if you see you used your mouse 20 times for the same action, knowing it has shown you the corresponding keyboard shortcut each time.

For more details you can find the Intellij plugin here, and the Eclipse plugin here.