By Jim White (Director of Training and Instructor)

The 9th post of a 10 part series.

See part 1 here.     See part 6 here.

See part 2 here.     See part 7 here.

See part 3 here.     See part 8 here.

See part 4 here.

See part 5 here.

You are almost done with your training. Here are a couple of miscellaneous shortcuts to round out your training.

ALT + ENTER: Properties. When developing an application, you often need to get to the Properties window. The Properties window allows you to configure a project, server or even application component beyond the code. You can go through the menu options to get to the properties, or you can simply use this shortcut to quickly display the Properties window for a selected object. The example below shows the Properties window opened for the selected Eclipse project.

CTRL + SHIFT + O: Organize Imports. You know that in order to use types not defined in the current package or in the java.lang you need to import the package of those types or fully qualify the types. If you are like me (again, remember I don?t like to memorize the API), you might remember the class name, but you rarely remember the full package name that it belongs in. This shortcut comes to the rescue of the package-name impaired. When editing a type in an editor, use this shortcut to have Eclipse automatically put the necessary import statements at the top of your file. When more than one type has the same name is detected, Eclipse asks for your advice on which import statement should be included (as shown below when it detected the need for an import based on the Date type).

Power Feature: Customizing short cuts. With your training nearly complete, you may be thinking this shortcut idea is great. You might even think, ?It would be great if _____ had a shortcut.? Well, any Eclipse command can have a shortcut. You simply need to define your own shortcut for the command. You may also wish to change shortcuts. Perhaps you are an emacs or vi expert. You wish Eclipse used many of the shortcuts you have memorized over the years in these popular editors. Well, you can change the shortcuts to match those editors. To add or change a shortcut, open the Preferences window (select Window > Preferences from the Eclipse menu bar). In the Preferences window, select General > Keys. Under the key bindings, you can pick a command and change the shortcut or bind a new shortcut to the command. You might also notice the Scheme drop down. An alternate Emacs key binding is offered, but you can find other key bindings on the Internet.

Return tomorrow for the last installment in this training.

If you are looking for training in a Java subject, I also hope you will consider an Intertech class. You can find our curriculum listed located on the web here.