Menu

Xcode has a menu bar, which is common to all the macOS software as shown in the following screenshot:

We won't discuss all options from the preceding screenshot, but will try to briefly point out the most important ones:

• Xcode: You can open the preference window from this menu option Xcode | Preferences... or by using (cmd + ,). The preference window can be used to configure the Xcode so it suits you. It's really important to customize the IDE so it’s a friendlier place to spend the time with. For more information, check the Xcode preferences window section. You can open different developer tools that are part of the Xcode, such as Instruments or File Merge.
• File: The following actions can be started:
  • New: This opens a new tab (Xcode supports many tabs), a new project (Xcode can have several projects opened at one time), a new window (one project can be edited in two different windows), and so on
  • Open: This opens projects and triggers the Quickly Open Windows tool, which helps you to jump without hassle through the source code of the project when it is huge
  • Save: This saves files and projects
  • Close: This closes the files 
• Edit: A typical edit menu, containing Undo (cmd + Z) and Redo (cmd + Shift + Z), is here, as well as copying and pasting items, and different types of filtering and sorting.
• View: Access to the different panels and their subtabs. Open the Xcode in full-screen mode (cmd + Ctrl + F).
• Find: Different options to find and/or replace text in a project.
• Navigate: Use this to open different parts of the Xcode or to move around.
• Editor: Various options to indent the text. Also, to insert different symbols.
• Product: Triggers builds or tests. Everything related to building (compiling) a project can be found here.
• Debug: Different options to initiate a debug session. Please note that this is not applicable to playground.
• Source Control: Manage source files using Git. We will get familiar with this, once we start working on mobile apps.
• Window: Easy way to organize the Xcode windows, once there are several of them.
• Help: To find help about the Xcode or to access the language documentation.

The best place to get familiar with Xcode is to read what Apple has prepared. Navigate to Help | Xcode to get detailed explanations about each part of the Xcode.

Now let's get familiar with the basic options in the three main panels, starting with the Navigator panel.