How can I make the documentation pop-up on hover in PyCharm?

If you are stopped at a breakpoint, PyCharm doesn't show quick documentation on hover even when the box is checked, because it is in "inspect variable on hover" mode. In that case, hold down Cmd while you hover (on a Mac).


Original feature request ticket: http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-66333

If PyCharm you are using is on 131.xxx branch or newer (can be found on "Help | About") then such option is available under Settings/Preferences | Editor | General | Show quick doc on mouse move.

For some earlier builds (when GUI controls where not yet available) it was possible to activate it by adding auto.show.quick.doc=true into IDE_INSTALL_FOLDER/bin/idea.properties file.


Modern IDE versions have it at Settings/Preferences | Editor | Code Editing | Show quick documentation on mouse move and it is enabled by default:

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(The screenshot is from PhpStorm but the option name & path is the same across IDEA-based IDEs)