Open Quickly

Introduction

Sometimes you know the name of a file you want to open, or a symbol within your project (like a class or function) that you want to edit, but finding its location in a large project can be a hassle. Open Quickly is here to solve that.

Open Quickly allows you to type the name of a file or symbol in your local project and jump right to it. To invoke the Open Quickly interface, just press ⇧⌘O (Shift+Command+O). You can also find it in the File menu > Open Quickly > In Files and Symbols…

NOTE: By default, Open Quickly uses a contrasting appearance to stand out against Nova’s main window. In light window themes, it will appear dark, and in dark window themes, it will appear light. You can change this in Settings > Theme.

Usage

Open Quickly pops up as a search field over the rest of Nova’s interface. Simply type the name of the file or symbol you’re looking for, and results will appear in a list.

You can click any result to open it, or use the arrow keys to navigate the list and press Return to open the chosen result. (The first result will be highlighted automatically for you, so you can just press Return to open that result!)

Search Scopes

By default, Open Quickly will search both file names in your project as well as symbol names. What constitutes a symbol name varies from syntax to syntax, but generally includes things like class, function, method, and variable names.

You can choose to narrow the scope of Open Quickly to only file names, or only symbol names, to prevent unwanted results from appearing. Simply select the All, Files /, Symbols #, or Symbols in Open Tabs @ options along the top to change the scope of the current search. You can also start your search query with /, #, or @ to limit the search to files, symbols, or symbols in open tabs, respectively.

Additionally, you can Open Quickly directly to the “Files” or “Symbols” scopes by pressing:

• ⌃⌘O (Control+Command+O): Open Quickly in Files
• ⌥⌘O (Option+Command+O): Open Quickly in Symbols

These options can also be found in the File > Open Quickly menu, and can be rebound in Settings > Key Bindings.

Open Projects

Nova also supports using Open Quickly to open projects. You can find this option in File > Open Quickly > In Projects….

Recently opened projects will automatically appear here, providing quick access without needing to open them from the Launcher. You can also type the name of any desired project you’ve added to the Launcher to open it.

NOTE: In Settings > Workspace, you can specify folders for Open Quickly in Projects to index even if they haven’t been added to the Launcher.

Indexing

Open Quickly is powered by Nova’s indexing feature, which goes through your project’s local files and makes an index of both your file names and any symbols found in those files. Nova indexes your local project when it is first opened, which may take some time depending on the size of the project. You can see the progress of an active indexing operation along the top of the workspace.

NOTE: Nova does not support indexing files on remote servers, only local files. Consequently, Open Quickly cannot be used to open remote files.

Ignoring Files

You can also choose to ignore files for indexing. This will prevent them from appearing in Open Quickly results.

If you’re working in a project with a Git repository, any files ignored by Git will be ignored for indexing by default. You can also set additional ignore rules either globally in Settings > Files > Ignored Files, or per-project from the Project menu > Project Settings.

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