When using development tools, I personally prefer it if my hands don't have to spend time moving between keyboard and mouse. Keyboard shortcuts rule the roost.

I've only been developing in xCode for a few weeks, but I've managed to get a workflow that comes closer to the speeds I'm used to with Visual Studio + Resharper, or TextMate.

Learning a 5-10 keyboard shortcuts greatly helps your speed of development I find, here's the ones I use, in rough order of frequency used. Start learning the top ones as they're the most useful, and work down.

Key Legend

= Apple (Command) Key

= Shift Key

= Ctrl Key

- Option Key

Symbols come from the handy Key Me site.

Oh, First Setup xCode!

I find it better with less visual noise when coding, so I like to work in a single code window, rather than having tons of code windows open. The default xCode pane as 3 splits - left, top and bottom. I just get rid of the top one to make more space.

To toggle the top pane:

++E

Navigating Between Files Quickly

Open By Name

Rather than using the tree view on the left hand side, I tend to use the quick Open Quickly feature. This is invoked using ++D, and you can then just type in the start of the file your looking for and it will suggest the right ones. Use the up and down arrows, then enter to select.

Recently Opened

+ 1 will get you a quick list of recently opened files. Use up-arrow and down-arrow key (or page up/down) to move around in the list. Enter to select the file you want.

Header/Footer

You can switch between .h and .m file using +-arrowup

Moving Around Within File

History Back and Forward

++left or ++right

Jump to Method

+ 2 will get you a quick list of methods in the current file. Use up-arrow and down-arrow key (or page up/down) to move around in the list. Enter to select the file you want.

Build and Run

If I just want to check things are ok, I use +B. That does a build and reports errors.

If I want to run the code on the Simulator, I use +R.

I usually want to see the console output, so I do an ++R to see that. I also clear the console quite often using +++R.

If you get errors or warnings at build time, you can make them visible in the editor using ++H (toggles errors and warnings on off).

Help

++? will bring up some quick help for the item under the cursor. Use that quite a lot when I don't know what method signature parts are, etc.

Editing

Commenting selection is done using +/. Quite handy for bulk operations.

Refactoring

xCode 3 doesn't have great refactoring, but I use Extract Method and Rename a LOT! ++J gets you the refactoring window, then I usually have to grab the mouse to select and type from there.

Links

There's a handy pdf showing a small summary of these shortcuts and more.

This PDF is even more in depth.

Note: I created a little site called Key Me to make it easy to embed key images into this file. View source of this page to see how you use it.