File and Code Templates

Last modified: 28 February 2024

File | Settings | Editor | File and Code Templates for Windows and Linux

IntelliJ IDEA | Settings | Editor | File and Code Templates for macOS

the Settings icon

Use this page to view, edit, and create file templates.

The File and Codes Templates page

Scheme

Select the scope to which the file templates apply:

  • Default: configure file templates for the entire application. These templates are available in all projects that you open with the current IDE instance. Use them as your personal templates that you prefer regardless of the specific project. IntelliJ IDEA stores global templates in the IDE configuration directory under fileTemplates.

  • Project: configure file templates specific for the current project. These templates are available to everyone who works on this project. IntelliJ IDEA stores them in the project folder under .idea/fileTemplates.

Tabs

IntelliJ IDEA includes the following types of templates:

Files

IntelliJ IDEA uses file templates to create new files.

Includes

These are templates for reusable fragments that can be included in file templates. For more information, refer to Reusable content in templates.

Code

IntelliJ IDEA uses these built-in templates as snippets to generate various constructs. For example, to generate implemented or overridden methods.

You can edit the templates available on this tab to modify how IntelliJ IDEA generates these constructs, but you cannot create new ones. To create custom code snippets, use live templates.

Other

These templates are related to various application servers and frameworks.

You can edit the existing templates, but you cannot create new ones.

Toolbar

the Create Template button Create Template

Create a new file or include template.

the Create Child Template File button Create Child Template File

Add a child template to the selected template to create a set of multiple files with one template.

the Remove Template button Remove Template

Delete the selected file or include template. You can delete only custom templates, not the default ones.

the Copy Template button Copy Template

Create a copy of the selected file or include template.

the Revert to Original Template button Revert to Original Template

Revert the selected template to its original state. You can revert only modified default templates.

Template settings

Name

Specify the name of the template to display in the UI.

Not available for default built-in templates.

Extension

Specify the file extension to associate the template with a specific file type.

Not available for default built-in templates.

File name

If necessary, specify a name for the file created from this template. By default, IntelliJ IDEA prompts the user to enter a name when adding the file. You can hard-code a specific name to avoid the prompt entirely, or compose a template from available variables. For example, here is how you can use the specified name but put it one directory above the one that was selected during file creation: ../${NAME}

Not available for default built-in templates.

Template editor

Edit the code used for the selected template. For more information about the syntax used in file templates, see Syntax.

Reformat according to style

Reformat the contents generated based on this template according to the code style defined for this file type.

This option is available only for file templates.

Enable Live Templates

Insert live templates inside the file template. Use the Velocity escape syntax to include live template variables in a file template, for example: #[[ $MY_VARIABLE$ $END$ ]]#

See also

Procedures