IDE Settings - RStudio

Author

Louis M Penrod, Ph.D.

Modified

September 24, 2026

Rainbow Parentheses

Rainbow parentheses help keep track of your parentheses and brackets by coloring them in sets.

Turn them on by:

1 - Go to Tools
2 - Global Options…
3 - Code
4 - Display
5 - Check “Use rainbow parentheses”

Your parentheses and brackets will now look like: rainbow parentheses in RStudio

Pane Layout

Changing the pane layout can simplify your workflow.

The script and console both want to be tall, but they are stacked by default.

Putting them side-by-side can help line up your code and output.

To change the layout, click the Workspace Pane button then click “Console on the Right”

Pane layout drop down in RStudio with Console on Right options highlighted