Xcode indentation key bindings - xcode

Question

Is there a way to get Xcode 4 to indent text so that pressing tab on selected text would indent it, shift + tab would unindent like in many editors?
The default ⌘] and ⌘[ do not seem to work, probably because I have a Finnish keyboard layout. Pressing the key combination for [ (alt + 8) and additionally holding down ⌘ does not indent.
In Xcode preferences I found "Key Bindings" and "Shift Right", "Shift Left", but it does not seem to understand shift + tab. If I try to press shift + tab I get ⇧⌘⇤.

Answer 1

As a workaround if you can't enter shift-tab, you could find the key binding (stored at ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/KeyBindings and modify it directly. It's XML so you should be able to do this without too much trouble.

Answer 2

Setting the Tab binding for Shift Right did not work for me either even when remapping "Insert Tab" to something else (seems hardcoded/bug). However I did get Alt + Tab and Shift + Alt + Tab binding working (with the Finnish Keyboard layout, didn't test extended or sami). I still had to remap "Insert Tab without Extra Action" from Alt + Tab to Alt + Ctrl + Tab, you could avoid this by using Ctrl instead of Alt for shifting.
Here is the xml file for it.
cd ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/KeyBindings
vi Default.idekeybindings (probably empty plist, if not extend appropriately)
Paste:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Menu Key Bindings</key>
<dict>
<key>Key Bindings</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Action</key>
<string>shiftRight:</string>
<key>Alternate</key>
<string>NO</string>
<key>CommandID</key>
<string>Xcode.IDESourceEditor.CmdDefinition.ShiftRight</string>
<key>Group</key>
<string>Editor Menu for Source Code</string>
<key>GroupID</key>
<string>Xcode.IDESourceEditor.MenuDefinition.Editor</string>
<key>GroupedAlternate</key>
<string>NO</string>
<key>Keyboard Shortcut</key>
<string>~ </string>
<key>Navigation</key>
<string>NO</string>
<key>Parent Title</key>
<string>Structure</string>
<key>Title</key>
<string>Shift Right</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Action</key>
<string>shiftLeft:</string>
<key>Alternate</key>
<string>NO</string>
<key>CommandID</key>
<string>Xcode.IDESourceEditor.CmdDefinition.ShiftLeft</string>
<key>Group</key>
<string>Editor Menu for Source Code</string>
<key>GroupID</key>
<string>Xcode.IDESourceEditor.MenuDefinition.Editor</string>
<key>GroupedAlternate</key>
<string>NO</string>
<key>Keyboard Shortcut</key>
<string>~$</string>
<key>Navigation</key>
<string>NO</string>
<key>Parent Title</key>
<string>Structure</string>
<key>Title</key>
<string>Shift Left</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>Version</key>
<integer>3</integer>
</dict>
<key>Text Key Bindings</key>
<dict>
<key>Key Bindings</key>
<dict>
<key>^~ </key>
<string>insertTabIgnoringFieldEditor:</string>
</dict>
<key>Version</key>
<integer>3</integer>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Answer 3

Tabbing is included with Xcode, it's just a different key combination. The keyboard short cuts are Command-] for indent and Command-[ for un-indent.
Another handy feature of Visual Studio that is also in Xcode is the block select feature. In Visual Studio if you hold down the Alt key while clicking and dragging you can select a block of text whose start and end columns don’t have to be the beginning and end of the line.
You can also do this in Xcode by holding down the Option key while clicking and dragging.
Found this information here:
http://idevhub.com/xcode-tips-selection-indent-and-block-select/