My Favorite Xcode 8 Shortcuts (Part 1/3)

Assistance Editor, Navigator, Quick Open, Line Number

3 min readDec 7, 2016

Motivation

Last night, I calculated the number of months we humans live. Since 2/3 conscious, we have about 640 months before we turn into dirt and grass.

We can’t simply waste our time by moving the trackpad back and forth. So, I’ve decided to share my favorite shortcuts to preserve my life as long as possible. 👼

I had to make 3 parts since my baby couldn’t handle 18 GIFs in a single page.

1. Navigator and Inspector

Common Usage: While you are working on a specific file, you can navigate through any files by pressing Command 1 and Up/Down. You can also access attributes of UIKit objects rather quickly.

Command 1–8 (Left)

Command Option 1–6 (Right)

#1 Acceessing Navigator(Left) and Inspector(Right)

2. Hide Panels

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll call them as “panels”.

Common Usage: Extremely useful when you are giving a presentation or using Xcode on smaller screens. It feels nice and zen.

Command 0(Left)

Command Option 0(Right)

Command Shift Y(Bottom)

#2 Hiding and Showing Left/Right/Bottom Panel

3. Navigate Back & Forward

Common Usage: You just worked on Storyboard, and multiple Swift files, and now you need to go back and forth. Just press these three buttons,

Control Command Left/Right

4. Find Line Number

Common Usage: Locating the exact line number is a must for effective communication between team members. You don’t say, “When you scroll down just a bit, you will see x,y,z”. Bullshit. Instead, “Go to line 40”

Command L

5. Quick Open

Common Usage: Useful when you need to find the exact location of anything. It also highlights the entire syntax. Of course, should you need to go back, #3 is recommended.

Command Shift O(letter)