The Unity editor allows adding custom menus which look and behave like built-in menus. This can be especially useful for adding commonly used functionality used throughout a project, for instance opening a scene in the editor, resetting all game data or triggering cheats to test gameplay etc.

To add a custom menu item, we simply need to create an editor script and write a static method marked with the MenuItem attribute.

#if UNITY_EDITOR
using UnityEditor;
using UnityEngine;

public class CustomMenus
{
  [MenuItem("Tools/DeleteData")]
  public static void DeleteData()
  {
    PlayerPrefs.DeleteAll();
  }
}
#endif

This creates a new editor menu Tools with the menu item DeleteData:

It is also possible to create new menu items under existing menus (i.e. Window), and also to create multiple levels of menus for better structuring and organization:

[MenuItem("Tools/Data/Delete")]

Hotkey shortcuts

New menu items can be assigned hotkeys combinations that will automatically launch them.

Hotkey	Description
%	CTRL on windows, CMD on Mac
#	Shift
&amp	Alt
#LEFT, #RIGHT, #UP, #DOWN #HOME, #END, #PGUP, #PGDN	Navigation keys
#F1 ... #F12	Function keys

Hotkey character combinations are added to the end of the menu item path, preceded by a space. Character keys not part of a key-sequence are added by adding an underscore prefix to them (i.e. _d for shortcut key “D”).

#if UNITY_EDITOR
using UnityEditor;
using UnityEngine;

public class CustomMenus
{
  ///<summary>A menu item with hotkey ALT-SHIFT-D</summary>
  [MenuItem("Tools/MenuItemOne #&d")]
  public static void MenuItemOne() {}

  ///<summary>A menu item with hotkey D</summary>
  [MenuItem("Tools/MenuItemTwo _d")]
  public static void MenuItemTwo() {}
}
#endif

Menu items with hotkeys will display the key-combination that is used to launch them.

Open Scenes in the Editor

As opposed to searching in the Project Window, one instance where I especially like to use custom hotkey menu items is for opening scenes in the editor. This can be easily achieved by using the scene’s build index and a hot key combination, for instance ALT-SHIFT-0, and the EditorSceneManager.

#if UNITY_EDITOR
using UnityEditor;
using UnityEditor.SceneManagement;
using UnityEngine;

public class CustomMenus
{
  /// <summary>Opens the scene with build index 0 using a menu item or hotkey SHIFT-ALT-0.</summary>
  [MenuItem("Tools/Open Scene/Scene0 #&0")]
  public static void OpenScene0()
  {
    EditorSceneManager.OpenScene("Assets/Scenes/Scene0.unity");
  }
}
#endif

50 Unity Tips #18: Custom Menu Items

Adding Custom Menu Items

Hotkey shortcuts

Open Scenes in the Editor

Further Reading