Fast access to often used document

gnomescriptingtext processing

For several applications I maintain my personal cheatsheets. I use them mostly for vim, latex, vim latex-suite and bash.

For example, when I forget a key combination in vim, I browse to the directory where I the keep the PDF of my cheatsheet, and then I open it with Acrobat Reader.

I have two monitors. I always work on the left, so I use the mouse to drag Acrobat Reader with the cheatsheet to the right screen. Then I close the file browser.

This I do many times a day. Opening an extra window (the file browser) and dragging the window around is distractive and time consuming.

How can I access my cheatsheets more efficiently?
I suppose there are several ways, but I'm not that familiar with the features of GNOME 3. All suggestions are appreciated. Please also provide some clue of how to implement your solution.

Best Answer

If you just want to place your PDFs somewhere on the second screen at a fixed position, use a script that call wmctrl after starting Acrobat Reader. Assuming you can start the Acrobat Reader with the commandline command acroread:

#!/bin/bash
acroread vimcheat.pdf
wmctrl -r vimcheat.pdf -e 0,1920,100,500,1100

The wmctrl command works by finding the string vimcheat.pdf in the title of any of your windows (make sure your PDFs are uniquely named). On my 1920x1200 screens it pushes the window to the second screen and resizes it to 500x1100 100 pixels down from the top.

You make links to the script(s) on your desktop, or start these from the ommandline, according to your preference.

BTW contrary to what is stated in other replies, I think using PDF files, with is fine tuned formatting control, makes perfect sense.

Related Question