How do I avoid typing "android" for every attribute?

Question

I am new to Android development and am also a designer doubling as a front-end guy.

How can I avoid having to type android: every time I add an attribute?

In other text editors (TextMate), I can trigger snippets by typing a known trigger and tab to auto-complete the word. Is there something similar for Eclipse?

Answer 1

Just begin typing the second part of the keyword (what follows after android: and by pressing Ctrl + Space, Eclipse will insert the desired keyword for you prefixed with android:.

Answer 2

You can bring up the auto-complete dialog by pressing Ctrl+Space at the start of a new line.

Furthermore, I wanted to add a note about why you need to type android: at all (and how you can change it to whatever you want).

If you look at the first element in your layout file, there will be a line like this:

xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

If you change the word android here, then that will be the prefix you need to type - so if you instead set

xmlns:a="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

then all you attributes need only be preceeded by a:, such as in this example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:a="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    a:layout_width="fill_parent"
    a:layout_height="fill_parent"
    a:orientation="vertical" >

    <TextView
        a:layout_width="fill_parent"
        a:layout_height="wrap_content"
        a:text="@string/hello" />

</LinearLayout>