About the Utility Area

Use the utility area to view and access Quick Help and other inspectors and to use ready-made resources in your project.

The utility area is an optional area in the right side of the workspace window. To hide or show it, click the right view selector button in the workspace toolbar:

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This area includes two panes, the top one for Quick Help and other inspectors, and the bottom one for libraries of helpful resources.

Use the inspector selector bar to choose the inspector best suited to your current task. Two inspectors are always visible in the selector bar:

• File inspector (): View and manage metadata for a file, such as its name, type, path, location within your project, and so forth.

• Quick Help (): View details about a symbol, including a concise description, where and how it is declared, its scope, the parameters it takes, and its platform and architecture availability.

Additional inspectors are available in some editors; for example, Interface Builder offers these:

• Identity inspector (): View and manage metadata for an object, such as its class name, accessibility information, runtime attributes, label, and so forth.

• Attributes inspector (): Configure attributes of the selected interface object. The attributes available are specific to the selected object. For example, some text field attributes include text alignment and color, border type, and editability.

• Size inspector (): Specify characteristics such as the initial size and position, minimum and maximum sizes, and autosizing rules for an interface object.

• Connections inspector (): View the outlets and actions for an interface object, make new connections, and break existing connections.

• Bindings inspector (): Create, view, and configure bindings for view objects.

• Effects inspector (): Specify settings for animation, alpha channel, transitions, and other visual characteristics of a selected object.

Use the library pane to access libraries of resources that are ready to use in your project:

• File templates (): templates for common types of files and code constructs. To use a template, drag it from the library to the project navigator.

• Code snippets (): short pieces of source code for use in your software. To use one, drag it directly into your source code file.

• Objects (): interface objects. To use one, drag it directly into your nib file in the Interface Builder editor window.

• Media files (): graphics, icons, and sound files. To use one, drag it directly to your nib file in the Interface Builder editor window.

Type into the text field in the filter bar to restrict the items displayed in the selected library.