navigation.md

Navigating a Project

So, you now opened your first Zed project. Now, how do you navigate it? Depending on the choice you made in the initial screen that asked you what UI mode you preferred, you either now see a file tree along the left or not. If you chose the "Chromeless" option, don't panic. In whichever mode, you can always open the file tree using the Navigate:File Tree command (Command-T on Mac, Ctrl-T on other OSes). Another way is using the Navigate:Goto command (Command-E on Mac, Ctrl-E on other OSes). If you don't want to navigate to a specific file, but instead want to navigate to the declaration of a particular symbol (e.g. method or class) you can use Navigate:Lookup Symbol (Command-J on Mac, or Ctrl-J on other OSes). We'll go each of these options briefly.

Goto

Goto is Zed's powerful UI and preferred way to quickly navigate between files, within files, navigating between symbols and even creating files. When activated using Navigate:Goto a box appears that you can type into. Along the bottom search results appear. When the Goto input box is empty, the list of results is ordered showing the most recently opened files first. This makes it a good way to navigate between a few files that you have to switch between quickly.

When you type a search phrase, results will match it against all files in your projects as well as symbols as follows:

• Symbols: the phrase has to match a symbol's prefix (e.g. abc matches a symbol abcde, but not defabc).
• Files: file names are matched in a fuzzy way, if the phrase appears as a substring of a path, it will rank higher than when characters are spread accross the path name.

There are a few special search phrase prefixes that change the way the list is filtered:

• / starting your query with / only matches paths with your query as prefix. Using / within a query means that the part before the / should be part of a directory name.
  • Example: /mode will match /mode/bla.txt, but not /mymode.txt. And mo/javascript.js will match /mode/javascript.js, but not /test/javascript.js.
• : starting your query with :, or using : within your query following a number, will jump to the line number that succeeds it.
  • Example: the query :10 will jump to line 10 of your current file. The query mod:10 will jump to line 10 of the first match of the mod query.
  • Shortcut: Command-L/Ctrl-L.
• :/ starting your query with :/, or using :/ within your query following a search string, will jump to the first match of this string with a file.
  • Example: the query :/hank will search for "hank" in your current document.
  • Shortcut: Command-F/Ctrl-F.
• :@ starting your query with :@, following a search string, will jump to the first definition of a symbol matching that search string in the current file.
  • Example:, the query :@toString will jump to the defintion of the toString function or method. A shortcut to this functionality is Command-R/Ctrl-R.
  • Shortcut: Command-R/Ctrl-R.
• @ starting your query with @ following by a search string will match symbols defined in the whole project.
  • Example: the query @toString will show all definitions of toString functions and methods in the current project.
  • Shortcut: Command-J/Ctrl-J.

File tree

If you're new to a project, or are just a tree-loving person, the tree is a good way to navigate a project. Run Navigate:File Tree and the file tree will apear on the left and have focus. You can expand and close nodes using the mouse and select a file to open it. If you prefer to use the keyboard, you can do so as well:

• Up: move up a node in the tree.
• Down: move down a node in the tree.
• Right: expand a node in the tree.
• Left: collapse a node in the tree.
• Enter: open the selected file.
• Escape: close the tree (depending on your UI configuration) and move focus back to the editor.

Depending on your initial UI layout choice, your tree may always be visible or not. To switch between these options use the Configuration:Preferences:Toggle Persistent Tree command.

Creating files

Creating a file in Zed is equivalent to navigating to a non-existing file using Zed's Goto feature. Simply type in a path (starting with /) relative to the project root that you want to create and press Enter. Zed will even create any parent directories that do not yet exist for you.

Do you want to create a file in the same directory as the current file you're editing, use the File:New command (Command-N/Ctrl-N), this will automatically prefill Goto with the directory of the currently active file so you just have to type in the file name.

Back

Want to go back to your previous manual topic? Use Goto! The previous topic will be listed at the top.