Here is another blog post, I am re-publishing, originally written for my company blog on 3rd January 2018.

When I attended WWDC in 2012, I visited session 402 titled Working Efficiently with Xcode. In this session, the engineers explained about setting up behaviours in Xcode to optimise your workflow. I used what I learnt then to configure my Xcode environment for increased productivity, which I still use to this day!

Behaviours

My idea when setting this up is to have a tab for each of the tasks I find myself performing most frequently, namely:

  • Editing code
  • Running projects and looking for console output, called Console
  • Debugging a problem, called Debug
  • Searching the codebase

With that in mind, by the end of this article, you will have a separate tab named the same as each highlighted word above. Not only that, but Xcode will:

  • Switch to Console tab, which is configured to maximise visibility for console output, when you run your project
  • Switch to the Debug tab, which is configured for debugging if a breakpoint is reached
  • At any point you can hit Option + Cmd + E to switch to the Editing tab to continue, well, editing your code
  • When you need to perform a search hit Option + Cmd + S to switch to the Search tab to search the project. Alas, the cursor is not placed in the search text field! If you know a trick for this, please get in touch 🙃
  • After you stop running the project, automatically switch to the Editing tab, so you can continue editing

Process

  1. Launch Xcode
  2. Open Preferences by navigating to Xcode → Preferences or hitting Cmd + ,
  3. Navigate to the Behaviors section

Console

On the left-hand side choose Running → Starts and:

  1. Enable Show tab named, enter “Console” then in active window
  2. Enable Hide navigator
  3. Enable Show debugger with Console View
  4. Enable Hide utilities

When you have finished your behaviour should look like:

Console Behaviour

Debug

On the left-hand side choose Running → Pauses and:

  1. Enable Show tab named, enter “Debug” then in active window
  2. Enable Show navigator called Debug navigator
  3. Enable Show debugger with Variables & Console View
  4. Enable Hide utilities

When you have finished your behaviour should look like:

Debug Behaviour

Editing

This behaviour has two parts, firstly on the left-hand side chose Running → Completes and:

  1. Enable Show tab named, enter “Editing” then in active window
  2. Disable all other options

When you have finished your behaviour should look like:

Completes Behaviour

Next up tap the + button in the bottom right of the pane, and:

  1. Enter the name of “Editing”
  2. At the right-hand side, enter the shortcut Opt + Cmd + E
  3. Configure the same behaviours as we did for Running → Completes, which will leave you with:

Editing Behaviour

Searching

Tap the + button in the bottom right of the pane, and:

  1. Enter the name of “Searching”
  2. At the right-hand side, enter the shortcut Opt + Cmd + S
  3. In your new behaviour, you can now:
    • Enable Show tab named, enter “Search” then in active window
    • Enable Show navigator called Find navigator
    • Enable Hide debugger
    • Enable Hide utilities

When you have finished your behaviour should look like:

Searching Behaviour

Misc

  • Select Build → Generates new issues and disable all options. This will remove the checkmark to the left.
  • Navigate to both Generates outputs and again disable all the options.

Other Personal Preferences

Each of these preferences can be found under the relevant pane with the given subheading.

General

  • Enable Continue building after errors will mean Xcode shows more errors than the first it encounters. I have found this useful during Swift source migrations.

Fonts & Colours

  • I find the Dusk theme to be the best balance between readability for long periods and usefulness.

Text Editing

  • Enable Line numbers, no explanation needed and a no-brainer in my opinion!

Conclusion

I hope this leaves you with a better understanding of how my Xcode behaviours are configured and some ideas on how you may modify yours. I really wish that there was a supported method of exporting/importing. If I’ve missed it, please get in contact and let me know 😀