Viewing Inline Documentation

Last modified: 26 June 2023

Available only in PyCharm Professional: download to try or compare editions

Quick documentation look-up

tip

PyCharm can show documentation automatically only when you invoke completion explicitly with .

Quick documentation look-up helps you get quick information for any symbol that is supplied with Documentation comments in the applicable format. PyCharm recognizes inline documentation created in accordance with the JavaScript Documentation Tool format.

To view documentation for a symbol at caret

Press or choose View | Quick Documentation Lookup on the main menu.

To show documentation automatically

  1. In the Settings dialog (), go to Editor | General | Code Completion. The Code completion page opens.

  2. Select the Show the documentation popup checkbox and specify the elapsed time.

To change the font size of quick documentation

  • Click Show slider in the upper-right corner of the quick documentation window, and move the slider.

  • Alternatively In the Settings dialog (), click General under Editor and select the Change font size (Zoom) with Ctrl+Mouse Wheel checkbox.

Documentation window

The Documentation popup helps navigate to the related symbols via hyperlinks, and provides a toolbar for moving back and forth through the already navigated pages, changing font size, and viewing documentation in an external browser.

When pinned, the Documentation popup turns into the Documentation tool window, with the corresponding sidebar icon, and more controls.

To switch between the Documentation popup and the Documentation tool window, use .

Item

Shortcut

Description

App actions back  App actions forward

or

Switch to the previous or next documentation page (e.g. after using hyperlinks).

note

On a macOS computer, you can also use the three-finger right-to-left and left-to-right swipe gestures.

App actions edit

Switch to the item (e.g. source) that corresponds to the documentation page currently shown.

Settings

Click this icon to perform the following actions:

  • Show the font size slider. Move the slider to increase or decrease the font size in the quick documentation window as required.

  • Enable or disable auto-update of documentation from its source.

  • Control the window position.

See also

Reference