Continuum Analytics: Documentation

# How to use Anaconda Navigator

There are four main components in Anaconda Navigator. Select each by clicking the 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 see many learning resources, including webinars, documentation, videos and training.
- COMMUNITY connect to other Navigator users through events, forums and social media.

TIP: For help understanding new terms in Navigator, see Navigator Glossary.

## Navigator Home

The NAVIGATOR HOME tab displays all the available applications that you can manage with Navigator. These graphical apps can be launched without ever using a command prompt or terminal window. Each app 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, several popular graphical Python apps are already installed or available to install. Here is the list along with quick links to their documentation:

- Jupyter notebook
- Orange data visualization
- Qt Console
- Sypder IDE
- Glueviz multidimentional data visualization
- R Studio IDE
- Anaconda Fusion

LAUNCH an application by clicking its Launch button. INSTALL an application by clicking its Install button.

NOTE: Applications are installed into the environment displayed in the top drop-down box. You can install them into different environments by selecting the environment from the top drop-down box before clicking the Install button. Or create a new environment for an application in the Environments tab, then return to Home tab to install it.

### Licensed applications

Some of the applications included in Navigator may have licenses. See the status of all licensed apps and add new licenses from the top navigation menu’s HELP - License Manager menu. See the HELP menu section below for more information.

## Navigator Environments

A Navigator ENVIRONMENT is a folder or directory that contains a specific collection of conda packages and the files needed to run them, so they can be maintained and run separately without interference from each other. It’s useful to create one environment for packages that run on Python 2, and another for Python 3. If you upgrade a program in one environment, for example, it will not upgrade the same program in another environment.

The ENVIRONMENTS tab allows you to manage installed environments, packages and channels. With Navigator, like with conda, you can create, export, list, remove and update environments that have different versions of Python and/or packages installed. Switching or moving between environments is called activating the environment.

The left column lists your environments. The right column lists packages in your current environment. The default view is Installed packages. Change which packages are displayed in the right column from the top drop-down menu by selecting Installed, Not Installed, Upgradable or All packages. More on that in the Managing Packages section below.

MANAGE ENVIRONMENTS

- SEARCH for environments on your computer by typing part or all of its name in the Search Environments box. This is useful if you have created many environments on your computer.
- CREATE a new environment by clicking the Create button. In the dialog box that appears give it a descriptive name, then select Python, R, or both for a mixed Python and R environment. If applicable, choose a Python version for the new environment, then click the Create button at the bottom of the dialog box.
- ACTIVATE or start up an environment. After creating an environment, select it by clicking its name from the left column list of environments, then clicking its Start (triangle) icon. From the drop-down box that appears, select whether to Open the environment in a Terminal window, a Python interpreter, Jupyter Console or Open with a Jupyter Notebook. NOTE: Some of these options may not be available if they were not installed into that environment.
- CLONE a copy of an existing environment by selecting its name, giving the new environment a descriptive name, then clicking the Clone button.
- IMPORT an environment file. If someone has given you an environment file that you want to use, for example my-environment-file.yml, and you have saved it to your computer. Click the Import button, give your environment a descriptive name, and click the file folder icon to locate the file or type the file name with path, and click the Import button.
- REMOVE an environment by selecting it and clicking the Remove button.

MANAGE CHANNELS

Channels are locations where Navigator or conda looks for packages.

EXAMPLE: Let’s say you want to look for packages on the “Milagro” channel of Anaconda Cloud. All three of these channel variations will look for packages in the same place on Anaconda Cloud:

- By URL, https://anaconda.org/milagro.
- By conda URL, https://conda.anaconda.org/milagro.
- Or simply by channel name, “milagro”.

Click the top Channels button to manage the following options from the drop-down box that appears:

- ADD CHANNEL Click the Add button at the top of the drop-down box. You may add Anaconda Cloud channels by typing or pasting the channel name, the URL, or the conda URL. Channels can also contain an access token.
- SEE ACTIVE CHANNELS that Navigator is managing. Active channels display a check mark to the left of the channel name.
- MAKE CHANNEL ACTIVE or inactive by checking or unchecking the checkbox next to the channel name, then clicking the Update channels button.
- DELETE CHANNEL by clicking the trash can icon next to the channel name, then clicking the Update Channels button to apply.

The top UPDATE INDEX button updates the list of all packages that are available in any of the enabled channels. Each of these packages may be installed into the current environment.

MANAGE PACKAGES

Packages in Navigator are managed by selecting the environment you want to manage, then selecting an action from the top drop-down menu above the packages list, or using the green checkboxes next to each package and the blue arrows next to some packages.

TIP: Click any heading to sort by package name, description, or version.

- INSTALLED Displays all packages installed in the selected environment. Remove any package by clicking the checkbox, then from the drop-down box that appears select Mark for Removal. Change the version installed by clicking the checkbox, then from the drop-down box that appears select Mark for Specific Version Installation. If other versions are available they will appear in a subsequent menu. Then click the Apply button.
- NOT INSTALLED Displays all packages available to install from your available channels into the current environment. Only packages that are compatible with your current environment are displayed. Check the checkbox of any package you want to install, or in the Version column, click the blue shortcut “up arrow”. Then click the Apply button.
- UPGRADABLE Displays a list of packages that have upgrades available. Upgrade a package by checking the checkbox and selecting Mark for Upgrade, or in the Version column, click the blue shortcut “up arrow”. Then click the Apply button.
- ALL

TIP: If after installing a new application or package it doesn’t seem to appear, reload the interface by selecting the Home tab, then click the top right Refresh button.

### Advanced packages and environments

When you use Anaconda Navigator, you are managing conda packages, environments and channels with an easy graphical user interface. But there is much more that you can do if you enjoy working from a command prompt or terminal window.

To learn more about conda’s advanced package, environment and channel management capabilities, see the corresponding documentation: conda packages, conda environments.

## Learning

On the NAVIGATOR LEARNING tab you can 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 that open in a browser window.

## Navigator Community

On the NAVIGATOR COMMUNITY tab you can learn more about events, free support 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: To get help from the community in learning Anaconda and Anaconda Navigator, join the Anaconda forum.

## Utility navigation

### Top menu

FILE menu (In macOS it’s NAVIGATOR menu) includes a drop-down menu for About, Preferences, Services, Hide Navigator, Hide Others, Show All, and Quit.

- ABOUT submenu displays information about Anaconda Navigator, including a link for bug reports and feature requests.
- PREFERENCES submenu allows you to reset the Anaconda API domain to point to a local Anaconda repository instead of Anaconda Cloud; enable or disable SSL; select or deselect whether to provide personally non-identifiable information to help improve the product; hide the quit dialog box when exiting the program; and modify the display of Navigator on some high DPI screens if your computer is having problems displaying Navigator properly. These preferences may all be reset back to defaults by clicking the Reset to defaults button.
- SERVICES submenu (macOS Only) Links to your computer’s system preferences menu.
- HIDE NAVIGATOR submenu (macOS Only) Hides your Anaconda Navigator window.
- HIDE OTHERS submenu (macOS Only) Hides all windows except your Anaconda Navigator window.
- SHOW ALL submenu (macOS Only) Brings back all windows including your Anaconda Navigator window.
- QUIT submenu exits Navigator. A confirmation dialog box will appear, and there you can click the Don’t show again box to exit without confirmation the next time.

HELP menu in the top navigation bar includes a drop-down menu for Search, Online Documentation, License Manager, and Logs Viewer.

- Search submenu links to your computer’s Help.
- Online Documentation submenu links to this documentation, which can be accessed from any web browser. A shortcut is also visible at all times from the bottom left of all Navigator screens.
- License manager submenu allows you to add, remove, and view details of licensed packages. Add a license by clicking the Add License button, then selecting the license file from your computer. If you have any problems click the “Got a problem with your license?” link. For more information please see the License installation page.
- Logs Viewer submenu 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.

### Other navigation

- Sign in to Anaconda Cloud button at top right of all screens. For your convenience in locating packages and channels available only on Anaconda Cloud (Anaconda.org), sign in for seamless transition between your computer and Anaconda Cloud. After you have logged into Anaconda Cloud this appears as, “signed in as [username]”.
- Documentation The Documentation button is visible at all times from the bottom left button on all Navigator screens.
- Developer Blog Read what our developers have to say about Navigator development. Visible at all times from the bottom left button on all Navigator screens.
- Feedback Give us your thoughts about Anaconda Navigator to help us make it better. Visible at all times from the bottom left button on all Navigator screens.

## Updating Anaconda Navigator

Every time Anaconda Navigator starts, it checks if a new version is available. If it finds a new version, a dialog box will pop up where you can chose to update or keep your current version. We recommend that you keep Navigator updated to the latest version.

## Next steps

Test drive Navigator with a quick and easy How-to on using Navigator with Pandas to try out practical, real world data analysis, or jump right to the Navigator Tutorial.

ADVANCED: Build your own Anaconda Navigator application.