In an earlier blog post I listed my ‘Top 10 Preferences to Tweak…’ Instead of amending that to Top 14, I wanted to give a fresh and updated take on some features that directly impact productivity and data quality.
After doing three customer calls in three consecutive days, I realized I was spending a lot of time on these preferences and figured the rest of y’all might need a reminder as well!
1. Click but Don’t Open the Object!
Sometimes you want to drag and drop a table into a Model Diagram or into the Worksheet. But instead, as soon as you click on the object, you lose focus as the object editor opens instead. Yes, you can ‘make that stop!’
Turn this off. You can then open objects with a double click instead.
Not sure what I’m talking about? You can read my post dedicated to the subject or just watch the movie 
Here’s a quick animated GIF of the behavior with the option disabled.
2-3. Just Let Me Type!
There are 2 sets of Code Insight feature preferences I suggest you tweak. Either disable the ‘automatic’ bit and invoke the popups with the keyboard (Ctrl+Spacebar) or increase the delay to something that feels more comfortable to you.
Automatic for the People, great album, not so much for slow typers
You can read more about our Code Insight feature here.
4. See Complete Date Values
By default, DATE values always include a time component. The default time, if none is supplied, is Midnight:00:00. By the way, I’m talking about the core Database product, not just SQL Developer – we’re just the messenger.
Display format of DATEs and TIMESTAMPs in Oracle SQL Developer (and other tools probably) is determined by the NLS preferences. We default, where we can, to your local and regional settings on your computer. For NLS_DATE_FORMAT we default to just show the month, day, and year. I recommend you go into the preferences and add the time component.
SYSDATE is RIGHT NOW, not ‘Today’, according to the database and will always have the time – even if you don’t see it.
Should We Change the Defaults?
This is a tough debate. I tend to agree with both sides of the argument – and I’m mostly sane, mostly. Setting it one way is bound to upset half the folks out there and vice versa. Disabling the ‘Automatic’ code insight feature means that many users would never realize the tool even has an insight feature. And I could spend the rest of eternity screaming that dates always include times, even if you don’t see them. The debate continues…