1 /****************************************************************************
3 ** This file is part of Qt Creator
5 ** Copyright (c) 2011 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
7 ** Contact: Nokia Corporation (qt-info@nokia.com)
11 ** This file contains pre-release code and may not be distributed.
12 ** You may use this file in accordance with the terms and conditions
13 ** contained in the Technology Preview License Agreement accompanying
16 ** GNU Free Documentation License
18 ** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free
19 ** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software
20 ** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of this
23 ** If you have questions regarding the use of this file, please contact
24 ** Nokia at qt-info@nokia.com.
26 ****************************************************************************/
29 \contentspage index.html
30 \previouspage creator-keyboard-shortcuts.html
31 \page creator-faq.html
32 \nextpage creator-tips.html
36 This section contains answers to some frequently asked questions about Qt
37 Creator. You might also find answers to your questions in the
38 \l{Known Issues} and \l{Tips and Tricks} sections, or the Troubleshooting
39 sections for a special area, such as
40 \l{Troubleshooting Debugger}{debugging}.
42 \section1 General Questions
44 \bold {How do I reset all Qt Creator settings?}
46 Qt Creator creates two files and a directory:
58 The location depends on the platform. On Linux, Unix, and Mac OS, the files
59 are located in \c{~/.config/Nokia}.
61 On Windows XP, the files are located in
62 \c{<drive>:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Nokia}, and
63 on Windows Vista and Windows 7 in
64 \c {<drive>:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Nokia}.
65 For all versions, try the path \c{APPDATA\Nokia}.
67 \bold {Qt Creator comes with MinGW, should I use this version with Qt?}
69 Use the version that was built against the Qt version.
71 \bold {Qt Creator does not find a helper application, such as Git or a
72 compiler. What should I do?}
74 Make sure that the application is in your system PATH when starting Qt
75 Creator. Also select \gui {Tools > Options} to check the settings specified
76 for the application. Many plugins specify either the path to the tool they
77 need or the environment they run in.
79 This is especially relevant for the Mac OS where \c {/usr/local/bin} might
80 not be in the path when Qt Creator is started.
82 \bold {How do I change the interface language for Qt Creator?}
84 Qt Creator has been localized into several languages. If the system
85 language is one of the supported languages, it is automatically selected.
86 To change the language, select \gui {Tools > Options > Environment} and
87 select a language in the \gui Language field. The change takes effect after
88 you restart Qt Creator.
90 \bold {Has a reported issue been addressed?}
92 You can look up any issue in the
93 \l{http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/}{Qt bug tracker}.
95 \section1 Qt Designer Integration Questions
97 \bold {Why are custom widgets not loaded in Design mode even though it
98 works in standalone Qt Designer?}
100 Qt Designer fetches plugins from standard locations and loads the plugins
101 that match its build key. The locations are different for standalone and
102 integrated Qt Designer.
104 For more information, see \l{Adding Qt Designer Plugins}.
106 \section1 Help Questions
108 \bold {The Qt API Reference Documentation is missing and context help does
109 not find topics. What can I do?}
111 Qt Creator comes fully integrated with Qt documentation and examples using
112 the Qt Help plugin. The integrated Qt Reference Documentation is available
113 for Qt 4.4 and later. Qt Creator, \QSDK, and other Qt deliverables contain
114 documentation as .qch files. All the documentation is accessible in the
117 To view the documentation that is available and to add documentation,
118 select \gui {Tools > Options... > Help > Documentation}. For more
119 information, see \l{Adding External Documentation}.
121 \section1 Debugger Questions
123 For information on troubleshooting debugger, see
124 \l{Troubleshooting Debugger}.
126 \bold {If I have a choice of GDB versions, which should I use?}
128 On Linux and Windows, use the Python-enabled GDB versions that are
129 installed when you install Qt Creator and Qt SDK. On Mac OS X, use the GDB
130 provided with Xcode. For a custom target, you can build your own
131 Python-enabled GDB. Follow the instructions in
132 \l{http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/QtCreatorBuildGdb}{Building GDB}.
134 You must use at least Python version 2.5, but we recommend that you use
137 For more information on setting up debugger, see \l{Setting Up Debugger}.
139 \section1 Code Editor Questions
141 \bold {How can I get code-completion to work on the standard headers and
144 Install a build from March 31, 2009, or later.
146 \section1 Compiler Questions
148 \bold {How can I make use of my multi-core CPU with Qt Creator?}
150 On Linux and Mac OS X, go to \gui Project mode, select your configuration
151 in the \gui {Build Settings}, locate the \gui {Build Steps}, and add the
152 following value, where \c{<num>} is the amount of cores in your CPU:
155 On Windows, nmake does not support the \c{-j} parameter. Instead, we
156 provide a drop-in replacement called jom. You can download a precompiled
157 version of jom from \l{ftp://ftp.qt.nokia.com/jom/}{Qt FTP server}.
158 Put jom.exe in a location in the %PATH%. Go to the \gui {Build Settings}
159 and set jom.exe as the make command.
161 \note: Unlike GNU make, jom automatically detects your cores and spawns as
162 many parallel processes as your CPU has cores. You can override this
163 behavior by using the \c{-j} parameter as described above.
165 \section1 Qt SDK Questions
167 \bold {I cannot use QSslSocket with the SDK. What should I do?}
169 The Qt build in the SDK is built with QT_NO_OPENSSL defined. Rebuilding it
170 is possible. For more information, see
171 \l{http://www.qtcentre.org/forum/f-qt-programming-2/t-qssl-19222-post94842.html}.
173 \bold {Which development packages from the distribution are needed on
177 sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev libSM-dev libxrender-dev libfontconfig1-dev libxext-dev
180 If you use QtOpenGL, you also need:
183 sudo apt-get install libgl-dev libglu-dev
186 \section1 Platform Releated Questions
188 \bold {Where is application output shown in Qt Creator?}
190 \bold {On Unix (Linux and Mac OS):} \c qDebug() and related functions use
191 the standard output and error output. When you run or debug the
192 application, you can view the output in the \gui{Application Output} pane.
194 For console applications that require input, select \gui {Projects > Run
195 Settings > Run in terminal}.
197 \bold {On Windows:} Output is displayed differently for \e{console
198 applications} and \e{GUI applications}.
200 The setting \c {CONFIG += console} in the .pro file specifies that the
201 application is built as a console application using some other runtime.
202 When you run a console application, you can view the output in the console
203 window of the calling application. If the
204 calling application is a GUI application (for example, a release-built
205 version of Qt Creator), a new console window is opened. For this
206 type of application, \c qDebug() and related functions use standard output
209 We recommend that you select \gui {Projects > Run Settings > Run in
210 terminal} for console applications.
212 For GUI applications, \c qDebug() and related functions use the Windows API
213 function \c OutputDebugString(). The output is displayed in the
214 \gui{Application Output} pane. However, only one output pane tab may be
215 open at a time or the output is not displayed correctly. You can use an
216 external debug output viewer, such as the
217 \l{http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647}{DebugView for Windows}
218 to display output from GUI applications.
220 \bold {On Symbian OS}: \c qDebug() and related functions use the native
221 \c RDebug::Print functionality.
223 When you use the Symbian emulator on Windows, the output is redirected to
224 standard debug output. To view it, you can use a Windows debug output
225 viewer, such as the DebugView for Windows.
227 On devices, the \c RDebug output is intercepted by \e CODA or \e {App TRK}
228 and then propagated to Qt Creator, which displays it in the
229 \gui {Application Output} pane.
231 Symbian OS provides no support for differentiating between standard output
234 \section1 Questions about New Features
236 \bold {Will a requested feature be implemented?}
238 If it is a scheduled feature, you can see this in the task tracker. If a
239 feature already has been implemented, it is mentioned in the
240 \l{http://qt.gitorious.org/qt-creator/qt-creator/trees/master/dist}{changes file}
241 for the upcoming release.
243 \bold {Why does Qt Creator not use tabs for editors?}
245 This question comes up from time to time, so we have considered it
246 carefully. Here are our main reasons for not using tabs:
250 \o Tabs do not scale. They work fine if you have 5 to 6 editors open,
251 they become cumbersome with 10, and if you need more horizontal
252 space than the tab bar, the interface does not work at all.
254 \o Tabs do not adapt to your working set.
256 \o The common solution is to give the user the ability to reorder
257 tabs. Now user has to manage tabs instead of writing code.
259 \o Tabs force you to limit the amount of open editors, because
260 otherwise you get confused.
264 Consider the following use case: \e {Developers want to switch editors.}
266 In fact, developers do not want to switch editors, but might have to do so
267 to accomplish their tasks. We need to figure out what the tasks are to
268 provide developers with better ways to navigate while performing the tasks.
270 One common factor in many use cases is switching editors while working on a
271 set of open files. While working on files A and B, users sometimes need to
272 look at file C. They can press \key Ctrl+Tab to move between the files and
273 have the files open in the correct editor according to file type. The list
274 is sorted by last used.
276 Typically, users also work on multiple classes or functions that are
277 related, even though they are defined or declared in different files.
278 Qt Creator provides two shortcuts for that: \key F2 to follow the symbol
279 and \key Ctrl+Shift+U to find usages.
281 In addition, developers can:
285 \o Press \key F4 to switch between header and source.
287 \o Press \key Alt+Left to move backwards in the navigation history.
289 \o Use the locator (Ctrl+K) to simply tell Qt Creator where to go.
293 The locator can be used to open files, but opening files is also just a
294 step on the way to accomplish a task. For example, consider the following
295 use case: \e {Fix AMethod in SomeClass which comes from
296 someclass.cpp/someclass.h}.
298 With a tabbed user interface, developers would search for someclass.cpp in
299 the tab bar, and then search for \c {::AMethod}, only to find out that the
300 method is not located in that file. They would then search for someclass.h
301 in the tab bar, find our that the function is inline, fix the problem, and
302 forget where they came from.
304 With Qt Creator, developers can type \c {Ctrl+K m AMet} to find the method.
305 Typically, they only need to type 3 to 4 characters of the method name.
306 They can then fix the problem and press \key Alt+Back to go back to where
309 Other locator filters include \c c for classes, \c : for all symbols, and
310 (thanks to a community contribution) \c . for symbols in the current file.