SearchAhh, shortcuts. The moment I learned using Ctrl+S – or Command+S for you OS Xers – would save anything immediately, I was hooked on shortcuts (phonics too, but that’s another story). Keyboard shortcuts, or hotkeys, save a ton of time and frustration for developers. In a complex program such as Unity, the right shortcuts can make or break your experience. Below I’ve compiled the top 5 Unity keyboard shortcuts that will save you time and sanity while you’re taking the gaming world by storm.
1 F
Yes, just F. Pressing the “F” key after selecting a game object in the hierarchy or scene window will focus that object in the center of the scene view. Note: Your mouse placement matters here. Hover over the scene window for the object to focus there. If your mouse is hovering over the hierarchy window, it will scroll to and highlight the game object you previously selected – useful for when your hierarchy window is packed and you lost your place.
2 Ctrl/Command + Shift + N
This shortcut creates a brand new, empty game object in your hierarchy window for your editing pleasure. If you’re interesting in learning how to do this programmatically, check out Part I and Part II of our series on instantiating Unity objects through code.
3 Ctrl/Command + P
Use this little gem to toggle Play/Stop in your game window. Pro tip: Don’t forget to stop the game before you make scene changes that you actually want to keep.
4 Ctrl/Command + H
Instantly hides all things Unity. Maybe you’re trying to create on the DL and need to hide Unity quickly or maybe just you have 600 reference windows open in the background and want to show them all at once. In any case, this shortcut minimizes all of your Unity windows on command. To hide everything but Unity, use Ctrl/Command + Alt/Option + H.
5 Ctrl/Command + D
Duplicates the game object selected. Simple, but useful – especially when creating a lot of duplicates. You could copy-paste the original a bunch of times, but this is much more efficient (and your “V” key will thank you).
Do you have any Unity shortcuts you couldn’t live without? Post them in the comments!
