[UE5] Editor UI Basics: Using the Viewport, Outliner, and Details Panel

Launch UE for the first time and there are so many buttons and panels it is hard to know where to start. First, picture placing one box and changing its size. What you need is "somewhere to put it," "a list to select from," "a place to configure it," and "a place to find saved assets."

This article diagrams what the four panels do and the essential shortcuts, and ends with a hands-on "building a photo set" that makes one lap through all four.

What You'll Learn

• What the four main panels you learn first do
• Camera control with right-click + WASD and object control with W/E/R/F
• The habit of fixing up redirectors so moving assets does not break references
• A hands-on lap through all four panels: building a photo set

---

The editor has four main panels

The UE editor is a collection of panels by function. Learn just these four and daily work starts flowing.

A box or light placed in a level is an Actor, and models, images, Blueprints, and other materials and data saved in the project are assets. For example, you can use a box model asset to place many box Actors in a level.

Panel	Role	The first operation to learn
Viewport	The 3D workspace. Edit and confirm how the level looks	Camera movement; placing, moving, rotating, scaling Actors
Outliner	A list of every Actor in the current level	Selecting Actors, organizing folders, searching
Details panel	Edits the properties (settings) of the selected Actor	Entering location and rotation numbers, adding components
Content Browser	The warehouse of every project asset (models, textures, Blueprints)	Importing, organizing folders, drag-and-drop placement

If you cannot find the Content Browser, try the "Content Drawer" at the bottom of the screen. Ctrl + Space opens it too. That drawer closes when you click elsewhere. The assets have not disappeared.

To keep it open all the time, press Dock in Layout in the top right of the extended drawer. It becomes the fourth panel as in the table above.

Note: The panel called "World Outliner" in UE4 was renamed to the Outliner in UE5. When an old tutorial says World Outliner, it is the same thing.

---

Viewport controls

The viewport is the center of UE development. Getting comfortable here directly determines how fast you improve.

Camera control: right-click + WASD

• Move the view: hold right-click and press W (forward), S (back), A (left), D (right)
• Rotate the view: hold right-click and move the mouse
• Adjust movement speed: hold right-click and turn the mouse wheel. Also adjustable via Camera Speed in the top right of the viewport

What you move is the camera for editing. The box you placed in the level and the game character do not move. First, hold the right button and move back and forth, then confirm it stops when you release.

Object control: W, E, R, F

Now release the right button and click an Actor such as a box to select it. The arrow and ring manipulation handles that appear on the selection are the gizmo. Switch shapes with W, E, and R, and drag the arrows or rings to operate.

Operation	Key	Notes
Translate	W	Move with the three-axis arrow gizmo
Rotate	E	Rotate with the three-axis ring gizmo
Scale	R	Change size with the gizmo whose ends are cubes
Focus view	F	Instantly move the camera to the selected Actor. Use this when you get lost

Three more tricks worth learning alongside.

• G = Game View: hides editor icons and gizmos so you can check the look. The viewpoint stays the editor camera. Confirm the player's view and behavior separately with "Play." Press G again to return to the editing display.
• Alt + drag or Ctrl + D = duplicate: hold Alt and drag the move gizmo to duplicate and place in one motion
• End = drop to the floor: snaps the selected Actor onto the ground directly below. Handy when rearranging props floating in the air

Snapping aligns position and angle to fixed increments. When the box seems to jump in steps, check the move grid snap. You can toggle it and change the increment from the grid icon in the viewport.

---

How the Outliner and Details panel work together

The Outliner and the Details panel are the pair "select" and "configure." Small Actors and overlapping Actors that are hard to click directly in the viewport can be reliably selected from the Outliner.

The properties in the Details panel are that Actor's settings. For a light, location, intensity, and color line up. Select a different Actor and the settings shown here change.

• Organizing the Outliner: create folders such as Lights, Props, and Characters and file things into them and you stay oriented as Actors multiply. The eye icon at the start of a row hides one temporarily, which helps select Actors buried under others
• The Details panel's search bar: when there are too many settings to find the property you want, typing Location or Material into the search bar at the top of the panel is fastest
• Adding components: from "+ Add" at the top of the Details panel, add parts such as lights and meshes to the selected Actor (→ how Actors and Components relate)

---

Using the Content Browser

In the Content Browser you find, import, and organize assets. Importing brings an external image or model in as an asset UE can use.

• Importing: the "Import" button, or drag and drop from Explorer
• Organizing: classify with folders such as Blueprints, Materials, Meshes, and Textures. Organization including naming conventions is covered in Asset Management Basics

The most important caution: moving without breaking references

UE assets remember and use other assets' saved locations. That connection is a reference. If a chest model uses an image for its surface and can no longer find that image, its appearance changes. Move and rename already-created .uasset files in the Content Browser, not directly in Windows Explorer.

Moving inside the editor leaves a redirector at the old location. It is data saying "this asset moved to a new location." Updating referencers after organizing and removing the notices you no longer need is what "Fix Up Redirectors" does.

• The correct move: drag and drop in the editor's Content Browser → right-click the source folder → Fix Up Redirectors In Folder to clean up the redirectors (the forwarding notes left behind)
• Migrate is something else: it is the feature for copying assets to a different project. Do not use it for moves within a project
• Force Delete is a last resort: it deletes while ignoring references, which breaks the referencers. Before running it, check the reference relationships in the "Reference Viewer" (right-click → References)

---

Hands-On: building a photo set with one lap through four panels

With what we have covered, let's put a prop on a pedestal and change a light's color. The diagram shows a finished image using a treasure chest. In this practice we prepare no extra assets and stand in a Cube for the chest. A Point Light produces light, so no light-fixture model like the one in the diagram is needed.

1. [Create a destination] Open a level in a practice project. Create a PhotoSet folder under Content in the Content Browser and save the current level into it as L_PhotoSet with "File → Save Current Level As." You can practice on a copy of an existing level.
2. [Viewport] Place a Cube from the "+ Add" menu at the top, adjust its position with W and size with R to make a pedestal. Duplicate with Alt + drag to stack a second tier.
3. [Viewport] Place another Cube, make it smaller than the pedestal, and put it on top. Snap it straight down with End, then look from the side and confirm it is neither floating nor sunk. When you want to build actual building shapes, continue to the Modeling Mode article.
4. [Viewport] Add one light (Add menu → Lights → Point Light) and move it diagonally above the pedestal.
5. [Outliner] Select the Actors you placed and gather them into a SetActors folder with right-click "Move To → Create New Folder." That is a group organizing the level's list. It is separate from the asset destination folder you created in step 1.
6. [Details panel] Find and adjust the light's Intensity and Light Color with the search bar. Changing the color visibly transforms the mood.
7. [Finish] Press G in the viewport to hide editor icons and check the light's color. Press it again to return, and save the level.

Once finished, select the prop Cube, press F, and look from another angle with right-click + WASD. Reselect the light in the Outliner, change its color in the Details panel, and if the screen updates, you completed a lap. If you cannot see the light, check that the view mode is "Lit," that the light is close enough, and that the surroundings are not too bright.

There are two key points.

• Learn it as a cycle: "place (Viewport) → select (Outliner) → configure (Details) → manage (Content Browser)." Any complex task is a repetition of this lap
• Keep what you built: this set also becomes teaching material for confirming the "Actor and Component" you learn in the core concepts article on a real object

Bonus: Good to Know Up Front

• Make edits you want to save with Play stopped: test runs inside the editor are called PIE (Play In Editor). Moving an Actor during that run normally reverts on stop. Do the placement and light tuning here while stopped.
• If you close a panel: bring back a missing panel from the Window menu. If the layout gets messy, Window → Load Layout → Default Editor Layout restores the initial state
• If you want to start by bringing assets in: with no materials on hand, grabbing one free asset is the fastest route (→ getting free assets on Fab)

Summary

• The editor's basics are one lap of "place in the Viewport, select in the Outliner, configure in the Details panel, and manage in the Content Browser"
• Camera is right-click + WASD; objects are W/E/R plus F (focus). The G, End, and Alt-drag tricks speed up your work
• Always move assets inside the editor and make Fix Up Redirectors a habit

With a map of the editor in hand, set your footing with five settings to check right after creating a project, then make what appears on screen readable as "vocabulary" in UE5 Core Concepts.

The photo set you built today — what mood do you think it would have if you changed the light color to sunset orange?

Further Reading

For operation details, see Epic's Viewport Controls, Game View, and Asset Redirectors.