seecheatdo
I find that often I need quick access to "notes" or cheat sheets while I'm learning a new tool. You may agree that a good place for these cheat sheets is embedded on your desktop, achieved via geektool.
seecheatdo solves the problem of having cheat sheets readily available in of two ways:
autoseecheatdo - Automatically show a cheat sheet based on the current open application
seecheatdo-on-command - Show a cheat sheet by command within Alfred.
Setup
Cheat sheet
Cheat sheets are just text files (.txt) all put in a common directory. For seecheatdo to automatically work with an application the text files should be lowercased, without spaces, the name of the application. ie: AppleScript Editor would have a cheat sheet of applescripteditor.txt
autoseecheatdo
Edit the .applescript file so that directoryToShortcuts variable is set to the directory where the cheat sheets are kept.
Next, the autoseecheatdo.applescript file needs to be compiled before it can be used with geektool.
This can be done via osacompile in Terminal, or with the AppleScript Editor.
osacompile example: osacompile -o autoseecheatdo.scpt autoseecheatdo.applescript
Within GeekTool, create a new shell geeklet.
Set the command of the geeklet to osacript and the path to the compiled autoseecheatdo.scpt file, ie: osascript /path/to/autoseecheatdo.scpt
Just below the command, set the geeklet to refresh every 1s.
seecheatdo-on-command
Double-click on the seecheatdo-on-command.alfredextension file which should open in Alfred. Click the Import button.
Changes to the alfredextension can be made within the Alfred preferences, under Extensions, APPLESCRIPTS.
Change the keyword, or command if you prefer, the default is cheat.
Also, for the extension make sure that the AppleScript directoryToShortcuts variable is set to the directory where the cheat sheets are kept.
Within GeekTool, create a new shell geeklet.
Set the command of the geeklet to cat and the path to where the cheat sheets are kept, ending with the file seecheatdo-on-command.txt, ie: cat /path/to/seecheatdo-on-command.txt
Just below the command, set the geeklet to refresh every 1s.
Geeklet style recommendation
Use a mono-spaced font and size so that everything fits and formats well. It might take some tweaking of the width, height, and the text file themselves to get a fit you like.
Note: autoseecheatdo & seecheatdo-on-command require separate geeklets.
Usage
autoseecheatdo
While an application is opened a cheat sheat, if it exists, should be displayed on the desktop via the configured geeklet.
seecheatdo-on-command
Launch Alfred, use the cheat command and the name of the text file, hit enter. The configured geeklet should display the cheat sheet on the desktop.
Credit
The idea of this autoseecheatdo is based off cloverfield - OS X Context Sensitive Shortcut Cheatsheets. Externalizing the cheat sheets from the applescript makes adding and updating the cheat sheets easier.