The Output window is a multitabbed window that displays
messages from the IDE. This window is displayed automatically
when you compile your program, debug your program, generate
Javadoc documentation, and so on.
You can also open this window by choosing View Output Window.
One function of the Output window is to notify you of errors found while compiling your program. The error message is displayed in blue underlined text and is linked to the line in the source code that caused the error. The Output window also provides links to errors found when running Ant build scripts and when checking and validating XML documents.
For debugging messages, the Output window is split vertically into two panes. The left pane displays the output of the application being debugged. The right pane displays details of the program's threads and breakpoints as well as status messages from the debugger. The right pane provides a link to the line in the code where program execution stopped.
When you run a program that requires user input, a new tab appears in the Output window. This tab includes a cursor. You can input information in the Output window as you would on a command line.
Right-clicking in the Output window displays a menu with the items described in the following table.
Menu Item | Description |
---|---|
Copy | Copies the text selected in the Output window to the clipboard. |
Select All | Selects all text in the Output window. |
Clear Output | Removes all text in the window. |
Start Redirection of This View to File | In addition to displaying messages in the Output window, writes the messages to the output directory in your user directory. The menu item switches to Stop Redirection of This View to File. For more information on redirecting messages, see Saving Compiler Messages. |
You can customize the way that messages are displayed in the Output window by two methods: