I can't find it right now, but there's a video from a conference where one of the IntelliJ developers show how to work with it productively... it really changed how I use it and made me much better at it.
One of the things that struck me the most was that you shouldn't use tabs... They are very inefficient at navigating between files... Use the file switcher (Cmd+E on Mac) to switch between recent files, or type search (Cmd+O on Mac, followed by initial letters of the words, e.g. to find FooBarClass type 'fbc') for anything else... and disable tabs in preferences.
Another good one is to use `Cmd+Shift+A` to search by action (e.g. Cmd+shift+A > "show bytecode")... with time you either start remembering the shortcut which is shown when you select the action, or you just get used to searching it this way which takes just a second anyway. One more hint: navigate between implementation/definition using Cmd+B on Mac (don't remember the Windows/Linux shortcut) which alternates between the two things, so you can go back and forward using just that! Talking about moving back/forwards, on Mac, use Cmd+[ to go back to previous lines you were editing, and Cmd+] to go forwards again (very handy to look back at what you had been doing before then moving back where you stopped).... oh, there's so much more... just watch some videos on YouTube and practice the hints you like the most.
One of the things that struck me the most was that you shouldn't use tabs... They are very inefficient at navigating between files... Use the file switcher (Cmd+E on Mac) to switch between recent files, or type search (Cmd+O on Mac, followed by initial letters of the words, e.g. to find FooBarClass type 'fbc') for anything else... and disable tabs in preferences.
Another good one is to use `Cmd+Shift+A` to search by action (e.g. Cmd+shift+A > "show bytecode")... with time you either start remembering the shortcut which is shown when you select the action, or you just get used to searching it this way which takes just a second anyway. One more hint: navigate between implementation/definition using Cmd+B on Mac (don't remember the Windows/Linux shortcut) which alternates between the two things, so you can go back and forward using just that! Talking about moving back/forwards, on Mac, use Cmd+[ to go back to previous lines you were editing, and Cmd+] to go forwards again (very handy to look back at what you had been doing before then moving back where you stopped).... oh, there's so much more... just watch some videos on YouTube and practice the hints you like the most.