Salesforce Apex Code Development Tools P2: Installing the Force.com IDE Eclipse plugin

1. What is Force.com IDE (Eclipse)?

The Force.com IDE is open-source, This was first and official IDE from Salesforce.
The Force.com IDE is a powerful client application for creating, modifying, deploying Force.com applications, integrated development environments, letting you code, compile, test, package, and deploy all from within the IDE.
These instructions show you how to install the Force.com IDE into your existing Eclipse distribution or upgrade from a previous version.

2. Step-By-Step Guide to Configure Force.com IDE with Eclipse

Step 1: Go to Eclipse download site (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/) then Download and Intall Eclipse.
Step 2: After Install Eclipse => Launch Eclipse => Go to Help => Install New Software

Step 3: In the new dialog Click Add => In the Add Repository dialog set
            Name: Force.com IDE
            Location: http://media.developerforce.com/force-ide/eclipse42
    => Click OK button

Step 4: In the list of available plug-ins in the Available Software dialog => Check Force.com IDE and Force.com IDE Debugger => Click Next to Download Force.com IDE

Step 5: In the Review Licenses dialog => Click I accept the terms of the license agreements => Next, Click Finish to Install Force.com IDE => When installation is complete, you will be prompted to restart. Click Yes.

Step 6: When Eclipse restarts, Go to Window => Open Perspective => Other, select Force.com and click OK.

Step 7: Now, you can develop and customize Force.com applications in Eclipse!

3. How to create New Salesforce Project In eclipse?

Very easy to create a Fore.com project in eclipse

Step 1: Launch Eclipse => Select File => New => Force.com Project

Step 2: In the New Force.com Project Dialog => Enter
           + Project name
           + Username
           + Password
              If you don't have account on Salesforce developer, CLICK HERE (How to Create Salesforce Developer Account?)
           + Security Token: If you do not have your Salesforce security token, you will should reset it. To do this Click Here to Get or Reset Your Security Token - Salesforce
           + Click Next to continue

Step 3: In the choose Initial Project Contents you can choose metadata components from your organization to include in this project. And Click Finish
+ Apex and Visualforce (classes, triggers, pages, components, and static resources): Retrieve only Apex and Visualforce components, including classes, triggers, components, pages, and static resources.
+ Selected metadata components: Use the Choose Metadata Components dialog to specify which Force.com metadata components you want to retrieve in a project.
+ Contents of package: Retrieve the contents of a particular package.
+ None: Retrieve no components.

Step 4: After retrieve metadata, you will get all your selected metadata into your workspace.

Step 5: This tool is very good to develop application in Salesforce. You can create Apex Class, Apex Trigger, Visualforce Page,... by Select File => New => ....

Step 6: If you want to get last changes from Force.com server or save code to sever. Right Click => Force.com => ...