Inline Help Text
Edit pageLast modified: 05 February 2025Inline help texts provide useful information about settings:
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When to use
Follow the rules for context help.
How to use
Text length
Show no more than five lines of help text to not clutter the screen. Text width is limited to 70 characters.
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Show more than five lines only when a text cannot be shortened for legal purposes.
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panel {
row {
checkBox("Send usage statistics when using EAP versions")
.comment("""
<p>Help JetBrains improve its products by sending anonymous
data about features and plugins used, hardware and software
configuration, statistics on types of files, number of files
per project, etc.</p>
<br/>
<p>Please note that this will not include personal data or
any sensitive information, such as source code, file names,
etc. The data sent complies with the
<a href=\"https://www.jetbrains.com\">
JetBrains Privacy Policy</a></p>
""".trimIndent()
)
}
}
Links
Provide a link to the corresponding help article or to a place in the IDE where the related settings can be found. Place the link at the end of the text where possible so that it does not disrupt reading.
Internal link ![]() | External link ![]() |
Text style formatting
Avoid highlighting
Avoid text highlighting. Usually, the help text is short, and no highlighting in bold or italics is needed:
Correct ![]() | Incorrect ![]() |
Avoid brackets
Avoid using brackets in control labels and place this information in the inline text instead:
Correct ![]() | Incorrect ![]() |
Writing guidelines
Make help text short and descriptive.
Do not repeat the setting name in the help text:
Correct ![]() | Incorrect ![]() |
Placement
Labeled inputs, checkboxes, radio buttons, and buttons
Place the help text to the right of labeled inputs (fields, combo boxes, or text areas), checkboxes, buttons, or radio buttons if all the following applies:
The space to the right is empty.
The help text has 1–5 words, not counting articles and prepositions.
The control label has 1–5 words.
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In other cases, place the help text under the UI controls:
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If there is no space under the UI control, use the help tooltip with the question mark icon for labeled inputs, checkboxes, and radio buttons. For buttons, use the help tooltip without the icon.
Trees, lists, and tables
Text applies to the whole component
If the help text applies to a whole list, tree, or table, place it below the control.
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import javax.swing.JTable
panel {
row {
cell(createTable()) // Actual table creation
.align(Align.FILL)
.comment("""
<Project> is content roots of all modules,
all immediate descendants<br/>of the projects base
directory, and .idea directory contents
""".trimIndent()
)
}.resizableRow()
}
Text applies to a single item
If the help text applies to a single list, tree, or table item, its location will depend on its length.
Short texts
Place short texts (1–10 words) to the right of the item:
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Long texts
Place longer texts (more than 10 words) into the detail part of master-detail layouts:
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For other cases, use the help tooltip with the question mark icon:
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Group of controls
If the help text applies to several UI controls, place it at the bottom of the group.
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Use Panel.group()
as the border for panels that need title and possibly the gray line on the right of the title:
panel {
group("Build and Run") {
row("Build and run with:") {
comboBox(listOf("IntelliJ IDEA", "Gradle"))
}
row("Run tests with:") {
comboBox(listOf("IntelliJ IDEA", "Gradle"))
}
row {
comment("""
<p>By default IntelliJ IDEA uses Gradle to build the project
and run the tasks.</p>
<p>In a pure Java/Kotlin project, building and running
by means of IDE might be faster, thanks to optimizations.
Note, that the IDE doesn't support all Gradle plugins and
the project might not be built correctly with some of them.</p>
""".trimIndent()
)
}
}
group("Gradle") {
row("Use Gradle from:") {
comboBox(gradleModel)
}
}
}
You can find more examples by invoking the Tools | Internal Actions | UI | Kotlin UI DSL | UI DSL Showcase action (available in internal mode and clicking the View source links on specific pages.
Thanks for your feedback!