******************
Anaconda Navigator
******************

.. contents:: **Anaconda Navigator** is a desktop graphical user interface included in Anaconda that allows you to easily manage conda packages, environments and channels without the need to use the command line
  :local:

System Requirements
-------------------

* Navigator supports the same platforms that the Anaconda Distribution
  supports, including Windows XP and newer 32 or 64-bit, Ubuntu or Kubuntu
  14.04 32-or 64-bit, or OS X 64-bit

* Python 2.7, 3.4 or 3.5

How to get Anaconda Navigator
-----------------------------

Anaconda Navigator is automatically installed when users download and install
:doc:`Anaconda <index>`.

If you already have Anaconda or Miniconda running on your system, you can
install Anaconda Navigator with the command `conda install anaconda-navigator`.

How to start Anaconda Navigator
-------------------------------

When you install Anaconda an icon is automatically added to your programs menu
and/or your Desktop to launch Anaconda Navigator.

It is also possible to launch it from a terminal or command prompt with the
command `anaconda-navigator`.

How to use Anaconda Navigator
-----------------------------

A **conda package** is a compressed file that contains system-level libraries,
Python or other modules, executable programs, or other components. Examples of
conda packages pre-installed in Navigator include Jupyter Notebook, QTConsole,
and Spyder. Hundreds more can be installed following the instructions below.

A **conda environment** is a directory that contains a specific collection of conda
packages that you have installed. For example, you may have one environment
with NumPy 2.7 and its dependencies, and another environment with NumPy 3.0 for
testing. If you change one environment, your other environments are not
affected.

A **conda channel** is simply a URL to directories containing conda packages.

There are four main components in Anaconda Navigator. Each one can be selected
by clicking the corresponding tab on the left-hand column:

* **Home** where you can install, upgrade, and launch applications.

* **Environments** allows you to manage channels, environments and packages.

* **Learning** shows a long list of learning resources in several categories:
  webinars, documentation, videos and training.

* **Community** where you can connect to other users through events, forums and
  social media

Navigator Home
--------------

The **Home** page displays a grid of applications that are available to manage with
Navigator. Each has a gear icon in the top right corner to **Update**, **Remove**, or
**Install a specific version** of that application.

The first time you open Navigator, three popular Python apps are already
installed: `Jupyter notebook <https://jupyter.readthedocs.org/en/latest/>`_,
`qtconsole <https://ipython.org/ipython-doc/3/interactive/qtconsole.html>`_,
and `Sypder <https://pythonhosted.org/spyder/>`_.

.. image:: img/navigator-home.png

**NOTE:** Applications installed and launched from the Home tab are installed
into the environment named "root".

With conda you can create, export, list, remove, and update environments that
have different versions of Python and/or packages installed in them. Switching
or moving between environments is called **activating** the environment.

Environments
------------

The **Environments** tab allows you to manage installed environments, packages and
channels. The left column lists the environments. The right column lists
packages for the current environment; depending on the selected option it can
show *Installed*, *Not Installed*, *Upgradable*, *Downgradable* and *All* packages.

.. image:: img/navigator-environments.png

* **Activate** or start up an environment. First you have to select it by
  clicking its name from the left column list of environments then click its
  "Start" icon. From the drop-down box that appears, choose whether to Open the
  environment in a Terminal window, Open in a Python interpreter, Open with a
  Jupyter Console or Open with a Jupyter Notebook; this will activate the
  environment and run the selected option.

* **Search** environments on your computer by typing its name in the *Search
  Environments* box. Incremental search will show those whose name partially
  matches the current text in the search box.

* **Create** a new environment by clicking the *Create* button, then give it a
  descriptive name, optionally select a version of Python, and click the *Ok*
  button.

* **Clone** a copy of an existing environment by selecting its name, giving the
  new environment a descriptive name, then clicking the *Clone* button.

* **Remove** an environment by selecting it, then clicking the *Remove* button.

* **Manage Packages** using the filtering options. *Installed* and *Search
  Packages* filter the list so only those packages already installed which
  match the text in the search box will show up. A different set of packages
  will appear depending on the option selected from the drop-down box: *Not
  Installed*, *Upgradable*, *Downgradable* or *All*. A partial incremental
  search is performed on the package names and the package descriptions.  
  The tick box to the left of each package can be used to mark it for
  installation, removal, or reinstallation to another specific version. After
  marking the packages to be modified click *Apply* to make the changes or
  *Clear* to reset all marks.

* **Channels** See a list of channels. From the dialog you can *Add* or
  *Remove* and *Update channels*. 
  **NOTE:** The changes here affect the whole conda installation and not just
  the selected environment.

* **Update package index...** updates the list of all packages which are
  available in any of the enabled channels. Each of these packages may be
  installed into any environment.

To learn more about advanced package, environment and channel management from a
terminal see their corresponding documentation: `packages
<http://conda.pydata.org/docs/using/pkgs.html>`_, `environments
<http://conda.pydata.org/docs/using/envs.html>`_.

**TIP:** If there are misaligned elements or if after installing a new
application or package it doesn't appear select the Home tab and click the
*Refresh* button on the top right to reload the interface.

Learning
--------

Learn more about Anaconda Navigator, the Anaconda platform, and open data
science. Select *Webinars*, *Documentation*, *Video*, and/or *Training*, then
click any item to have it open in a browser window.

.. image:: img/navigator-learning.png

Community
---------

Learn more about the events, forums and social networking relating to Anaconda
Navigator. Select *Events*, *Forum* and/or *Social*, then click any item to
have it open in a browser window.

**TIP:** Join the Anaconda forum to get help from the community in learning
Anaconda and Anaconda Navigator.

.. image:: img/navigator-learning.png

Utility Navigation
------------------

Anaconda Navigator Menu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* **File -> Preferences** allows you to reset the Anaconda API domain and conda
  domain, allows you to select or deselect whether to provide personally
  non-identifiable information to help improve the product, and to select or
  deselect whether to show application environments. These preferences may all
  be reset back to defaults by clicking the *Reset to defaults* button.

* **File -> Quit** to exit Navigator. A confirmation dialog box will appear,
  there you can tick the *Don't show again* box to exit without confirmation
  the next time.

* **Help -> Online Documentation** Links to this documentation, which can be
  accessed from any web browser.  Help -> About Displays information about
  Anaconda Navigator, including a link for bug reports and feature requests.
  Help -> Logs Viewer allows you to review the logs of everything you have done
  in Anaconda Navigator since you started this session. There are two or more
  files that can be selected from the drop-down list: *navigator.log* that
  refers to the actual application logs and *condamanager.log* which refers to
  logs on the specific conda-manager component. As the application is used more
  log files are created with a number appended to the name. More recent log
  files have a higher number.

* **Services** (OS X Only) Links to your computer’s system preferences menu.

* **Hide Python** (OS X Only) Hides your Anaconda Navigator window.

* **Hide Others** (OS X Only) Hides all windows except your Anaconda Navigator
  window.

* **Show All** (OS X Only) Brings back all windows including your Anaconda
  Navigator window

Sign in to Anaconda Cloud
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For your convenience in locating packages and channels available only on
Anaconda Cloud, sign in for seamless transition between your computer and
Anaconda Cloud. If you are already logged into Anaconda Cloud this appears as,
“signed in as [username]”.

Updating Anaconda Navigator
---------------------------

Every time Anaconda Navigator starts it checks if a new version is available.
If it finds a new one a dialog box will pop up where you can chose to update or keep your current version.

Next Steps
----------

**NEXT**: Try Navigator yourself with a quick and easy How-to on :doc:`using Navigator with Pandas <navigator-pandas>`, or jump right to the :doc:`Navigator Tutorial <navigator-tutorial>`.

Also see the :doc:`navigator-glossary`.

.. toctree::
  :maxdepth: 1
  :hidden:

  navigator-tutorial
  navigator-pandas
  navigator-glossary

Support
-------

For free community support, join the
`Anaconda Mailing List <https://groups.google.com/a/continuum.io/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/anaconda>`_.

Please report bugs on the
`Anaconda GitHub issue tracker <https://github.com/ContinuumIO/anaconda-issues/issues>`_.

Training and consulting is available for Anaconda Navigator and
all Anaconda products. For more information, please contact your account
representative or sales@continuum.io.


Anaconda Navigator is copyright 2016 Continuum Analytics, Inc. May be copied
and distributed freely only as part of an Anaconda or Miniconda installation.
