5/3/2018 Scratchpad - Firefox Developer Tools | MDN

Technologies

References & Guides

Feedback

Sign in

Search

Firefox Developer Tools

Scratchpad
Scratchpad provides an environment for experimenting with JavaScript code. You can
write, run, and examine the results of code that interacts with the web page.

Unlike the Web Console, which is designed for interpreting a single line of code at a time,
Scratchpad lets you edit larger chunks of JavaScript code, then execute it in various ways
depending on how you want to use the output.

Firefox Developer Tools - Scratchpad

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Scratchpad 1/9
5/3/2018 Scratchpad - Firefox Developer Tools | MDN

Usage
Opening Scratchpad in its own window
There are several different ways to open Scratchpad in its own window:

press Shift + F4 , or go to the Web Developer menu (which is a submenu in the

Tools menu on macOS and Linux), then select Scratchpad

click the wrench icon ( ), which is in the main toolbar or under the Hamburger
menu ( ), then select "Scratchpad".

This will open up Scratchpad in its own window.

Opening Scratchpad in the Toolbox

New in Firefox 47.

From Firefox 47, you can open Scratchpad inside the Toolbox. First you need to check
"Scratchpad" in the "Default Firefox Developer Tools" section of the Settings page.

Now Scratchpad will be available in the Toolbox, alongside other tools like the Page
Inspector and the Web Console. This is especially useful in split Console mode: you can
use Scratchpad for a persistent, multiline editor, and the Console to interact with the
page.

Editing
The Scratchpad window looks something like this (on macOS the menu bar is at the top of
the screen):

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Scratchpad 2/9
5/3/2018 Scratchpad - Firefox Developer Tools | MDN

The File menu offers options to save and load JavaScript code snippets, so you can reuse
code later if you like.

Code completion
Scratchpad integrates the  tern code analysis engine, and uses that to provide
autocomplete suggestions and popups containing information on the current symbol. To
list autocomplete suggestions, press Ctrl + Space .

For example, try typing d , then pressing Ctrl + Space . You'll see the autocomplete box,
as shown below:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Scratchpad 3/9
5/3/2018 Scratchpad - Firefox Developer Tools | MDN

The icon next to each suggestion indicates the type, and the currently highlighted
suggestion gets a popup with more information. ↑ and ↓ cycle through the suggestions
and Enter or Tab select the highlighted choice.

Inline documentation
To show the inline documentation popup, press Ctrl + Shift + Space when the cursor is
on an identifier. For example, if you type document . addEventListener , then press Ctrl
+ Shift + Space , you'll see a popup that shows a summary of the function's syntax and a
short description:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Scratchpad 4/9
5/3/2018 Scratchpad - Firefox Developer Tools | MDN

The "[docs]" link takes you to the MDN documentation for the symbol.

Executing

Once you've written your code, select the code you want to run. If you don't
select anything, all the code in the window will be run. Then choose the way you
want the code to run using the buttons along the top, using the Execute menu, or
using the context menu. The code is executed in the scope of the currently
selected tab. Any variables you declare outside of a function will be added to the
global object for that tab.

There are four execution options available.

Run
When you choose the Run option, the selected code is executed. This is what you'd use to
execute a function or other code that manipulates the content of your page without
needing to see the result.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Scratchpad 5/9
5/3/2018 Scratchpad - Firefox Developer Tools | MDN

Inspect
The Inspect option executes the code just like the Run option; however, after the code
returns, an object inspector is opened to let you examine the returned value.

For example, if you enter the code:

1 window

Then choose Inspect, the object inspector is shown that looks something like this:

Display
The Display option executes the selected code, then inserts the result directly into your
Scratchpad editor window as a comment, so you can use it as a  REPL.

Reload And Run

The Reload And Run option is only available in the Execute menu. It first reloads the page,
then executes the code when the page's "load" event fires. This is useful for running the
code in a pristine environment.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Scratchpad 6/9
5/3/2018 Scratchpad - Firefox Developer Tools | MDN

Running Scratchpad in the browser context

You can run Scratchpad in the context of the browser as a whole rather than a specific
web page. This is useful if you are working on Firefox itself or developing add-ons. To do
this check "Enable chrome and add-on debugging" in the Developer Tool Settings. Once
you've done this, the Environment menu has a Browser option; once that's selected, your
scope is the entire browser rather than just the page content, as you will see from
examining some globals:

1 window
2 /*
3 [object ChromeWindow]
4 */
5
6 gBrowser
7 /*
8 [object XULElement]
9 */

The Scratchpad execution context is set to browser when a snippet file has
// -sp-context: browser
on the first line.

Keyboard shortcuts
Command Windows OS X Linux

Open the Scratchpad Shift + F4 Shift + F4 Shift + F4

Run Scratchpad code Ctrl + R Cmd + R Ctrl + R

Run Scratchpad code, display the Ctrl + I Cmd + I Ctrl + I

result in the object inspector

Run Scratchpad code, insert the result Ctrl + L Cmd + L Ctrl + L

as a comment

Re-evaluate current function Ctrl + E Cmd + E Ctrl + E

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Scratchpad 7/9
5/3/2018 Scratchpad - Firefox Developer Tools | MDN

Reload the current page, then run Ctrl + Shift + Cmd + Shift + R Ctrl + Shift +
Scratchpad code R R

Save the pad Ctrl + S Cmd + S Ctrl + S

Open an existing pad Ctrl + O Cmd + O Ctrl + O

Create a new pad Ctrl + N Cmd + N Ctrl + N

Close Scratchpad Ctrl + W Cmd + W Ctrl + W

Pretty print the code in Scratchpad Ctrl + P Cmd + P Ctrl + P

Show autocomplete suggestions Ctrl + Space Ctrl + Space Ctrl + Space

Ctrl + Shift + Ctrl + Shift + Ctrl + Shift +

Show inline documentation
Space Space Space

Source editor shortcuts

This table lists the default shortcuts for the source editor.

In the Editor Preferences section of the developer tools settings, you can choose to use
Vim, Emacs, or Sublime Text key bindings instead.

To select these, visit about:config , select the setting devtools.editor.keymap , and

assign "vim" or "emacs", or "sublime" to that setting. If you do this, the selected bindings
will be used for all the developer tools that use the source editor. You need to reopen the
editor for the change to take effect.

From Firefox 33 onwards, the key binding preference is exposed in the Editor Preferences
section of the developer tools settings, and you can set it there instead of about:config .

Command Windows OS X Linux

Go to line Ctrl + J Cmd + J Ctrl + J

Find in file Ctrl + F Cmd + F Ctrl + F

Find again Ctrl + G Cmd + G Ctrl + G

Select all Ctrl + A Cmd + A Ctrl + A

Cut Ctrl + X Cmd + X Ctrl + X

Copy Ctrl + C Cmd + C Ctrl + C

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Scratchpad 8/9
5/3/2018 Scratchpad - Firefox Developer Tools | MDN

Paste Ctrl + V Cmd + V Ctrl + V

Undo Ctrl + Z Cmd + Z Ctrl + Z

Ctrl + Shift + Z Cmd + Shift + Ctrl + Shift + Z

Redo
/ Ctrl + Y Z / Cmd + Y / Ctrl + Y

Indent Tab Tab Tab

Unindent Shift + Tab Shift + Tab Shift + Tab

Move line(s) up Alt + Up Alt + Up Alt + Up

Move line(s) down Alt + Down Alt + Down Alt + Down

Comment/uncomment line(s) Ctrl + / Cmd + / Ctrl + /

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Scratchpad 9/9