Edit

Editor Overview

  • Article

This overview is intended to introduce you to the parts of the Editor interface and the tools. The keyboard shortcuts, also known as keybindings, have been provided with each tool and in the table at the end of this document.

For a more in-depth experience using the tools to accomplish basic tasks, take a look at the Editor Tutorial.

There's more information about Editor on the Minecraft: Bedrock Editor GitHub site!

Important

The Editor is in early preview and we're working to add more capabilities. It will change significantly as we get feedback from creators like you. Also, the images of Editor in this document might vary a little from what you have on your screen.

In this manual, you will learn the following:

  • What the difference is between a project and a world
  • How to create a project
  • How to customize the user interface and project world settings
  • What all the parts of the UI are and where to find them
  • How to save a project
  • How to open an existing project
  • How to export a project as a world
  • How to open a world created from a project
  • Where Editor stores exported and saved files

Requirements

To get started, you need the following:

  • A Windows 10 (or higher) computer with Minecraft Bedrock Editor
  • Keyboard and mouse

Important

Editor is not available on mobile.

It's recommended that the following be completed before beginning this tutorial.

Creating an Editor Project

After you launch the Editor from the shortcut, you get a screen that says "Create New Project."

Image of the Minecraft Editor starting page

While you're creating a project, you can configure the name, export settings, and the usual settings for a Minecraft world.

Export settings will apply when you export as a playable world from the Editor (.mcworld).

Image of the Minecraft Editor configuration page

New projects load with a Welcome/Quick Start screen. If you close it and you want it open again, go to the Help menu and select Quick Start.

First Things First: UI Settings

Editor looks like your usual Minecraft game with a user interface (UI) on top of it. Before we get started, let's make sure that UI looks okay for your monitor resolution and preferences.

Go to the File menu and select UI Settings.

Editor User Interface appearance settings showing UI scale, font, and theme drop-down menus

  • UI Scale - Makes the menu bar and windows larger or smaller in relation to the project world.
  • Font - Changes the size of the text in the windows.
  • Theme - Changes the colors used in the UI.

After you make a selection from the UI Settings menu, your changes are reflected immediately.

Hint: If you accidentally adjust things to where you can't read the settings to fix it, press the Alt F4 keys on your keyboard to close Editor. Then, launch Editor again and create a new project. (This is part of why we're doing this first.)

Editor works with Minecraft Accessibility features.

When you're happy with the UI Settings, you can click the X to close the UI Settings window.

Editor UI Windows: Move, Minimize, Close

You can move Editor windows by clicking and dragging them by the title bar.

Click the double "up arrows" in the corner to collapse the windows upwards so you can tuck them out of the way if you don't want to close them.

If you do want to close the window, click the X in the corner. Some windows can be re-opened with a keyboard shortcut.

Welcome/Quick Start

Animation of the parts of the Quick Start Welcome screen

Tab Content
Introduction Welcome to Minecraft Editor!
Minecraft Editor is a multiblock editing experience that helps you easily craft high-quality worlds in Minecraft Bedrock. We are early in our development and excited for the opportunity to build alongside our creator community!
Click through the tabs above to learn the basics!
Movement Hold down your right mouse button on the viewport to enable movement.
Move horizontally using W A S D.
Move vertically using Shift or Space.
Selection Left-click anywhere in the world to select a single block.
Use the gizmo or hold Shift between left-clicks to place opposite corners of an area. Press Ctrl to make additional selections.
Move using the gizmo, or hold down Alt and move with arrow keys (horizontal) and page up/page down (vertical).
Resize using corner gizmos, or hold Ctrl (increase) or Shift (decrease) with arrow keys and page up/page down.
Tools Select the brush from the left toolrail.
Left-click and drag to paint.
Actions Undo (Ctrl Z) or redo (Ctrl Y) your edits.
Cut (Ctrl X) or copy (Ctrl C) a selection.
Select a single block and quick paste (Ctrl V) what you cut or copied.
Or, paste preview (Ctrl Shift V) and use arrow keys and page-up / page-down for precise placement.
Help Editor will be exclusively available in Bedrock Preview until the feature set and quality meets our standards to be made visible in the Launcher.
- Documentation
- Log issues and give feedback.
You may close this panel. To reopen at any point, select "QuickStart" from the top "Help" menu.

Tool Mode and Crosshair Mode

The two modes within Editor are Tool Mode and Crosshair Mode.

Tool Mode has multi-block editing tools and the user interface. When you move the mouse without holding any mouse buttons, your cursor is freely available to use the user interface.

Tool Mode has the user interface with tools

Crosshair Mode has more precise, single-block editing capabilities. It also uses the usual Minecraft keybindings you can see on the Settings > Controls > Keyboard & Mouse screen. When you move the mouse, you look around.

Crosshair mode has no user interface and looks like the Minecraft game

In a new project, before you touch anything, you are in Tool Mode.

If you're ever not sure which mode you are in, press ESC. If you're in Crosshair mode, you'll go back into Tool Mode - if you're in Tool Mode already, nothing will happen.

Practice: In the top right corner of the screen, select the "Crosshair Mode" button or press Ctrl Tab to go into Crosshair Mode. Note the differences. To go back to Tool Mode, you can press Ctrl Tab again or press Esc. You can also go from Tool Mode to Crosshair Mode by clicking the Crosshair Mode button in the upper right corner.

Before we dive into the Tool Mode UI, you might want to take a moment to familiarize yourself with how to look around and move around in the different modes.

  • Unlock the camera: In Tool mode, hold down the right mouse button to look around. In Crosshair Mode, you do not need to hold down the right mouse button.

  • Moving around: In Tool Mode, hold the right mouse button down while you press W, A, S, D, Space, and Shift keys. You do not need to hold down the right mouse button to use the same keys to move around in Crosshair Mode.

  • Look-to-teleport: In Tool Mode, point your cursor at a block in the distance, and hit G on your keyboard. You will be "Grapple teleported" there. This function does not work in Crosshair Mode.

Tool Mode Overview

Think of the Tool Mode UI as a collection of containers. The menu bar contains menus. The action bar contains buttons that do simple functions like Undo and Redo. The toolrail contains more complicated tools that have their own configuration windows where you can change the settings.

The contents of these containers will change as Editor is developed.

Menu bar: At the top of the screen. Currently has File, Edit, World Options, and Help.

Editor UI with menu bar highlighted

Action bar: Below the menu bar. Currently has undo and redo buttons that affect the things you do to the world, including some of the actions you do in Crosshair Mode.

Editor UI with the action bar highlighted

Toolrail: Left side of the screen. Currently holds Test World, Brush, Selection, and Paste Preview. You can also select these tools using keyboard shortcuts, if they have one.

Editor UI with the tool rail highlighted

File menu

  • Export as - When you're ready to share your project (or just see it in non-Editor Minecraft) selecting File > Export as > Playable world to start the process to create a .mcworld file in the projectbackups folder inside the com.mojang folder in your computer.

If you don't know how to find your com.mojang folder, there are instructions in the Bedrock Getting Started tutorial.

Editor has its own filetype: .mcproject. These files will always open in Editor, if you have it installed.

To import projects, go to the Create New Project screen and click the import button to the right of the Create New Project button.

The import button has an arrow icon on it and is next to the Create New Project button

Navigate to a .mcworld, .mctemplate, or .mcproject files. After the file is imported, it is converted to an .mcproject file.

If you want to learn more about Minecraft file types like .mcproject and .mcworld, there is more information on the Minecraft File Types page.

  • UI settings - This is where you can adjust the UI Scale, Font, and Theme color settings of the Editor UI.

  • Pause screen - This option brings up the Minecraft pause screen where you can edit game settings (like music volume) or Save & Quit.

Editor UI Settings screen in Redstone theme

Edit menu

As you work in Tool Mode, these familiar functions (along with their keyboard shortcuts) are available to help you.

Command Shortcut
Undo Ctrl Z
Redo Ctrl Y
Quick Fill Select an area and either Ctrl F while in Selection mode or use Fill in the Selection panel
Deselect Ctrl D or use the Deselect button in the Selection panel
Cut Ctrl X
Copy Ctrl C
Quick Paste Ctrl V
Delete Delete

This menu is also a good place to go for a reminder about these keyboard shortcuts.

World Options

  • Actors - If you want to pause or unpause actors like mobs.

  • Change dimension - You start in the Overworld by default. Go here to change to the Nether or the End.

  • Daylight cycle - Turn off to set the time of day to noon and stop time there. Turn on to start the day/night cycle again.

Help

  • Quick start - If you want the welcome screen back, select this.

  • Documentation - This is a handy link to the document you are reading right now (among others).

  • Feedback - This is the link to the GitHub site where you can share feedback.

Action bar

The Action Bar has quick functions like undo and redo that affect the things you do to the world, including some of the actions you can do in Crosshair Mode.

Command Shortcut
Undo Ctrl Z
Redo Ctrl Y
Crosshair Mode Ctrl Tab

Toolrail

These are some of the tools you can use to edit your world and some quick steps to practice using each tool.

Test World

Playtest your Editor project as a playable Minecraft world. No changes will be saved to your project. Available only when hosting a single player world.

Editor selection tool window

Game Mode

Choose Survival, Creative, or Adventure.

Difficulty

Choose Peaceful, Easy, Normal, or Hard.

World options

You can toggle Daylight Cycle, Weather Cycle, Show Coordinates, and Spawn at Current Location on or off.

Time of Day

Choose Default, Day, Noon, Sunset, Night, Midnight, or Sunrise.

Practice: Test a world

  1. After selecting the options you want, click the Test World button.

  2. Your world loads must as it will in regular Minecraft.

  3. Whenever you're ready to continue editing, press Esc. From here, you can choose to Resume Testing or Return to Editor.

Brush, Selection, and Paste Preview

Only one window can be open at a time and you can use the keyboard shortcuts to switch among them.

Practice: Tool window switcheroo

  1. Press Ctrl B, Ctrl S, and Ctrl Shift V in any order to get used to switching among the tools.

Brush

Ctrl B opens the Brush tool window.

The Brush tool is used to draw shapes with a selected Block Type.

You can change the Brush Size, ranging from 1 to 16. Brush sizes are rendered as squares of the selected brush size. This means a brush size of 1 draws a 1x1 block shape. If you select a brush size of 3, you get a 3x3 block shape, or 9 total blocks arranged as a cube.

You can click once once to place one block shape, or click and drag to paint blocks everywhere you touch.

Animation showing how to paint with blocks

If you choose a brush size larger than 3, you can select the Hollow checkbox to make the brush strokes hollow.

If the Face Mode checkbox is selected, the brush cursor acts like the Adjacent selection cursor - meaning you can select the air above a solid block to draw your blocks. This should make it easier to build up shapes from the ground - like mountains!

Practice 1: A humble tree...

  1. Move to a clear area.
  2. Set the Brush Size to 1, check the box for Face Mode, and choose 'log' for the Block Type.
  3. Find a clear place on the ground and place one log block.
  4. Draw another log on top of that one.
  5. Draw two more log blocks on top of each other to create a tree trunk. Brush tool was used to draw logs stacked up like a tree trunk
  6. Change the Block Size to 3 and the Block Type to 'leaves' and click the top of your log blocks to put leaves around the top of your tree. Brush tool was used to draw leaves at the top of the tree trunk

Practice 2: Is it really Hollow?

  1. Move to a clear area.
  2. Change the Brush Size to 16.
  3. Check the box for Hollow.
  4. The box for Face Mode should be checked, too.
  5. Set the Block Type to 'glass'.
  6. Click the ground once to draw a 16x16, hollow glass shape. You should find yourself inside a huge, glass house. Image of a hollow glass shape created with the brush tool

Selection Tool

Ctrl S opens the Selection tool window.

Editor selection tool window

The selection tool is used to select any of the blocks in the world, including air.

The Selection window that you use to configure the selection tool has sections where you can change the selection mode, transform the selection, fill the selection with blocks, or deselect your selection.

Freeform Selection Mode

Freeform mode creates a selection area when you choose the x, z, and y coordinates, in that order. It can include air in the selection, but you can only click on a non-air block to choose it as a coordinate.

Animation of how to use Freeform Selection

There is more than one way to specify the coordinates in Freeform mode, and they will all be explained fully, along with the helper features called gizmos.

For now, let's learn one way to create a selection in Freeform mode.

Freeform mode practice:

  1. Make sure "Freeform" is showing in the Mode drop-down menu of the Selection window.
  2. Left-click a block on the ground in front of you with your cursor. This chooses the block that will hold the x coordinate.
  3. Hold down the Shift key and click another block. This chooses the z coordinate. A square with x and z as opposite corners will be drawn on the ground.
  4. To add the y coordinate, hold down the Alt key and click somewhere above the x, z selection square.
  5. Click the Deselect button (or Ctrl D) before moving on to the next practice.

Image of a selection made in Freeform Selection mode

Fixed Distance Selection Mode

Fixed Distance mode can select blocks, air, or a combination of both.

Animation of how to use Fixed Distance Selection

You can use the scroll wheel on the mouse to increase or decrease the distance between you and the selection cube. Fixed distance is the easiest mode to use if you want to select only air blocks. Like Freeform selection, you build the selection shape by selecting the x, z, and y coordinates (in that order).

Fixed Distance mode practice:

Image of the preselect cube

  1. Make sure "Fixed Distance" is showing in the Mode drop-down menu of the Selection window. You should see a thinly-outlined cube shape in front of you.
  2. Hold down the right mouse button and look around the world. Notice how the pre-selection cube moves around.
  3. Next, roll the mouse's scroll wheel back and forth to see how the fixed distance pre-selection cube changes size and position.
  4. Click the ground to set your x coordinate.
  5. Hold the shift key and click the ground a little distance away to choose your z coordinate.
  6. Alt-click above the x z square.
  7. Click the Deselect button (or Ctrl D) before moving on to the next practice.

A completed fixed distance selection

Adjacent Selection Mode

Adjacent mode selects only the air next to, above, and below solid blocks.

Animation of Adjacent Selection

Adjacent mode practice:

A completed adjacent selection

  1. Make sure "Adjacent" is showing in the Mode drop-down menu of the Selection window.
  2. If you move the mouse around, you will see the thin, pre-select cube move around on top of the ground.
  3. Left-click to confirm your choice of where to create the selection.
  4. Click the Deselect button (or Ctrl D) before moving on to the next practice.

Transform

In the Transform section, you can fine-tune your selection by entering Origin coordinates or changing the Size.

Practice transforming the origin of the selection:

  1. Create a selection with any of the selection modes.
  2. Look in the lower left corner of the UI to see the Pos (position) coordinates. These are the coordinates of where you are standing.
  3. Compare the position coordinates with the x, y, and z coordinates in the Origin section.
  4. Increase the x coordinate and press enter. Notice how the selection moves.
  5. Change the y and z coordinates and notice how the selection is affected.
  6. Click the Deselect button (or Ctrl D) before moving on to the next practice.

Size

Animation of how to use the Size function on the Selection tool window

Practice changing the size of the selection:

  1. Create a selection with any of the selection modes.
  2. Increase or decrease each coordinate and notice how the size of the selection is affected.
  3. Click the Deselect button (or Ctrl D) before moving on to the next practice.

Fill

Animation of using the fill function of the selection tool

  1. Create a selection with any of the selection modes.
  2. Notice the Block Type. The default is stone.
  3. Click the Fill Selection button to fill the current selection with stone.
  4. Deselect the shape and move to another area.
  5. Make another selection.
  6. Click the Search field and select a different block type.
  7. Click the Fill Selection button to fill the current selection with the different block type.

Image of 1 selection that was filled with stone, and another filled with stone brick stairs

Gizmos

Animation of how to use a resize gizmo

Create a selection and click on a corner of the selection box. You will see a little cube with arrows appear. That's a Resize Gizmo! You can click and drag these arrows to adjust the size of your selection box.

Selection with a resize gizmo on the corner

You might also see another box hovering in the center of the selection. That's a Move Gizmo and you can drag it around to move your selection.

Selection with a move gizmo in the middle

Paste Preview

Ctrl Shift V opens the Paste Preview window.

Animation of the paste preview function

After you create a selection and copy it (Ctrl C) or cut it (Ctrl X), you can use the Paste Preview window to change how the selection will appear when you paste it.

  1. Select something interesting, like a village house, with any of the selection modes. Image of a selected house
  2. Copy or cut the selection (Ctrl C or Ctrl X).
  3. Open the Paste Preview window (Ctrl Shift V).
  4. Click the ground where you want the copied or cut blocks to be pasted. The paste preview selection is displayed. Image of a paste preview
  5. You can use the arrow keys and the page up/page down keys to move the paste preview box to exactly where you want it. Animation of using the keyboard to adjust the paste preview
  6. Click Confirm Paste. Image of a pasted selection

You can Transform your copied selection by editing the Origin coordinates, Rotating the selection, or mirroring the selection along the x or z axis.

Click Confirm Paste after each transformation to place a selected object. Image of a pasted house after the paste has been confirmed

Crosshair Mode

Crosshair Mode is intended for making small single-block edits and placing entities and mobs.

Practice:

  1. Click the Crosshair Mode button (or Ctrl Tab) to go into Crosshair Mode.
  2. Use commands to summon a horse (/summon horse) and give yourself a campfire (/give @s campfire).
  3. Place a campfire where it won't hurt the horse.
  4. Go back to Tool Mode and notice that pausing and unpausing actors affects the horse and not the campfire.
  5. Use Undo (Ctrl Z) and Redo (Ctrl Y) in each mode to make the campfire disappear and reappear. Notice that the horse is unaffected. Animation showing that pausing actors causes mobs to hold still, but moving items like a campfire continue burning

Keyboard shortcuts

Action Keyboard Shortcut Mode
Forward W (*Tool: Hold down right mouse button) Tool + Crosshair
Left A (*Tool: Hold down right mouse button) Tool + Crosshair
Backward S (*Tool: Hold down right mouse button) Tool + Crosshair
Right D (*Tool: Hold down right mouse button) Tool + Crosshair
Up Space (*Tool: Hold down right mouse button) Tool + Crosshair
Down Shift (*Tool: Hold down right mouse button) Tool + Crosshair
Increase speed Quickly press W twice (*Tool: Hold down right mouse button) Tool + Crosshair
Fly toggle Quickly press space twice Crosshair
Display 3D cursor - baseline for Tool Mode Esc Tool only
Selection mode Ctrl S Tool only
Selection: Single block Single left mouse click Tool only
Selection: 2-step XZ region selection Left mouse click while holding Shift Tool only
Selection: 3-step XZY region selection Left mouse click while holding Shift for XZ, and to select Y move your cursor and press Alt while left clicking Tool only
Deselect Ctrl D Tool only
Fill Select an area and either Ctrl F while in Selection mode or use Fill in the Selection panel Tool only
Undo Ctrl Z or Ctrl Delete (if /effect is applied) Tool + Crosshair
Redo Ctrl Y Tool + Crosshair
Cut Ctrl X Tool only
Copy Ctrl C Tool only
Paste Ctrl V Tool only
Delete Delete Tool only
Grapple teleport Point at something and press G Tool only
Brush Ctrl B Tool only
Open cmd window / Tool + Crosshair
Toggle from Tool to Crosshair Mode Crosshair Mode button or Ctrl Tab Tool only
Toggle from Crosshair Mode to Tool Esc Crosshair only
Get to Tool Mode from Crosshair Mode Esc Tool only

Editor File Operations - Create, Import, Export

Here are the steps to create a project, make a quick edit, export the file, and then open that file in Minecraft and then again in Minecraft Editor.

  1. Launch Minecraft Bedrock Editor.
  2. Select "Create New Project."
  3. Name the project something meaningful like "Editor Test Project" and open it up.
  4. Select the brush tool (Ctrl B) and draw something by clicking on the ground a few times.
  5. Go to the File menu and select Export as ... Playable world.
  6. You will see some messages confirming that the export started and finished, and a temporary chat message will display the path to a folder in your com.mojang folder called projectbackups.
  7. Close Editor by going to File ... Pause screen and then choose Save & Quit like you usually do.
  8. Go to the projectbackups folder in your com.mojang folder. You should find a file with the name you gave it appended to the date, time, and a .mcworld extension.

If you need a reminder about how to find the com.mojang folder on your computer, there are some steps in the Getting Started article.

The projectbackups folder does not exist until the first time you export a project from Editor.

If you're curious about Minecraft file extensions, there is an article about them called Minecraft File Extensions where you can learn more.

  1. If Editor is closed, then when you double-click the .mcworld file Minecraft will launch like usual and import the .mcworld file. The world you created in Editor will be listed among any other Minecraft worlds you already have. However, if Editor is still running, then double-clicking the file will cause it to be imported into Editor instead.
  2. To send your project file to someone else so they can work with it in Editor, go back to the projectbackups file in your com.mojang folder.
  3. Copy and paste the file and change the file extension to .mcproject. When you send this file to someone else, they can double-click it to open it directly in Editor (if they have Editor installed.)

Importing a file into Editor

  1. Launch Editor and click the Play button.
  2. Click the import icon next to the Create New Project button to open the Windows file explorer.

The Editor import button is next to the create new project button

  1. In the file explorer, choose the .mcworld, .mctemplate, or .mcproject you want to import.
  2. When the file is imported, a success message is displayed.
  3. The newly imported map will be available in the list.
  4. Open the map. It will load into Editor with default settings, which can be modified within Editor.

File structure information

As you probably already know, when you create a world in Minecraft, that world is stored in the minecraftWorlds folder in your com.Mojang folder. When you create a project in Editor, that file is also a world, so it is also stored in the minecraftWorlds folder but it is invisible to non-Editor Minecraft unless you import it. The Editor project file goes into the projectbackups folder only when you export it.

Editor and Bedrock Dedicated Server

Editor is only enabled in the preview version of Win32 Bedrock Dedicated Server (BDS). There are two ways to launch it:

Launch the .exe with the command line, like this:

bedrock_server.exe Editor=true

This will only work if you're launching BDS from scratch with no existing world.

You should see the output say:

#####################################################
#                                                   #
#              CREATING EDITOR PROJECT              #
#                                                   #
#####################################################

Create an Editor project from Minecraft

  1. Launch Editor from the usual desktop shortcut.
  2. Create a new Editor Project.
  3. Locate the Editor Project in the com.mojang/minecraftWorlds folder and copy it into the BDS worlds folder
  4. Ensure that server.properties has the correct world name.
  5. Execute bedrock_server.exe.

If correctly set up, you should see the output say

[2023-10-24 07:21:43:977 INFO] Enabling Editor Services

Editor Mode is controlled by a flag in the level data (not by the command line), so you need to launch the server either by having the server create a new Editor project, or by launching the server using an existing Editor project.

When the server is up and running, any client connections from Minecraft Bedrock Preview Edition will connect as editor sessions and present the editor interface. Connections from Non-Preview editions of Minecraft will be refused.

What's Next?

Now that you know more about the parts of Editor, let's use the tools to do some editing!

Editor Tutorial