Installing Pycharm Community Edition for Python 3
By Lenin Mishra
Prerequisite - Installing Python on your machine
Although, you can learn to code in the Python Interactive session on your command line, you should use an Integrated Development Environment(IDE) for writing your Python code.
In this article, you will learn to install the Pycharm Community Edition IDE for Windows 10. However, you can use this process for any operating system.
Step 1 - Visit Jetbrains website
Visit Google and search for Pycharm. You should be able to see the first link for downloading Pycharm.
Click on the first link and you should reach the official download page for Pycharm IDE.
You could also directly go to Pycharm download page on Jetbrains website.
On the Pycharm page, click on the Download button.
Step 2 - Choosing Pycharm Community Edition
Once you click on the Download button, you should reach the download section of Pycharm.
Choose your operating system and click on the Download button under the Community edition.
The Pycharm installer will be downloaded and you will be redirected to a “Thank you for downloading” page.
Step 3 - Install Pycharm from the installer
Once the download is complete, run the exe file by double-clicking. The setup wizard will open up. Click on “Next”.
You will be shown the default path where Pycharm will be installed. You could change it, if you want. However, for the purpose of this article, we will stick with the default.
You may also choose to create a Desktop shortcut and add Pycharm to your PATH.
In the “Choose Start Menu Folder” section, choose “Jetbrains” and click on Install button.
Once the installation begins, wait for it to finish.
Step 4 - Create your first program with Pycharm
Double click on the Pycharm Desktop icon. The introductory screen will open up. Click on “New Project”.
In the “New Project” screen, you need to choose the location where you want to create your Python files. For the purpose of this article, a trial folder in Desktop is chosen.
You also need to set the Python interpreter. You will use the Python interpreter installed on your machine. Click on the folder button(...).
Once you click on the folder button, you will be taken to the “Add Python Interpreter” screen. Here you can choose the relevant installation from the dropdown.
Once you have added your Python interpreter, click on the “Create” button.
Write your Python code in Pycharm
Once you have created your python project, you will be taken to the project screen. As mentioned earlier, a trial folder in the Desktop is being used as the project folder. So we will create our Python files in that particular folder.
Right click on the “trial” folder, then choose “New” and then click on “Python file”.
You will be asked to name your python file. Give any name of your choice. I will be naming it test.py.
Since you are choosing to create a Python file above, you don’t need to provide the .py in your file name. Just provide the filename without the .py extension.
Once your file is created, you can print("Hello World!") and run your code.
You should see the result of your code, at the bottom of your Pycharm window.
Step 5 - Change appearance of Pycharm
If you don’t like the Dark Theme of Pycharm, you can change it to have a different appearance. Click on “File” and then Settings.
Once you are in the Settings dialog box, click on “Appearance” in the left column and then choose the theme of your choice from the drop down. Clik on “Apply” and “Okay”.
Check out installation guides for other Python IDEs.