With the search everywhere functionality, you can potentially search for and customize various features and settings within PyCharm. This way, you can dynamically make changes to the settings inside a project window. With that said, while working on a specific project, you may still want to directly open the Preferences window (the one we worked with in the previous chapter) to go through specific settings yourself, as opposed to searching for a specific one.

In that case, you can do this by going to PyCharm | Preferences (in macOS) or File | Settings (in Windows or Linux). Also, notice the shortcut associated with the option when you choose it. For example, the shortcut to open Preferences in macOS is , while it is Ctrl + Alt + S in Windows:

It is generally a good idea to take note of the shortcuts associated with actions and tasks that you commonly use; using shortcuts, as we know, can be much faster and more efficient than choosing from the menu bar. If a specific option does not have a shortcut assigned to it yet, remember that you can attribute your own custom shortcut to it.

Again, PyCharm offers extensive flexibility in terms of customizing your working environment, and this is an example of that.

In the same File tab (as well as in other tabs), there are also various useful options that you might want to take advantage of regularly, including the following:

• Close Project: Personally, I often use this command to exit out of the current project window and go back to the initial welcome window whenever I've finished working on a project
• File | Open Recent: This, on the other hand, allows you to quickly switch to another project that you have recently worked on
• Edit | Macros (which we will discuss in detail later on): This provides a way to record and replay specific sequences of actions within PyCharm, with the goal of automating repetitive and tedious processes

In general, I recommend going through all the available options and actions in different tabs to narrow down those that you anticipate using often and take note of them. Again, if there is a specific action you will use regularly that does not have a shortcut combination attributed to it, you can add in your own custom shortcut in PyCharm's settings window.