File and Code 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, see 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.

Create Template

Create a new file or include template.

Create Child Template File

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

Remove Template

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

Copy Template

Create a copy of the selected file or include template.

Revert to Original Template

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

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 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: #[[ $MY_VARIABLE$ $END$ ]]#