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Help dialog

A searchable cheatsheet that ships inside the editor. Every major feature gets one entry with a short description, the UI path where you'll find it, and the current keyboard binding(s). Search by name, keyword, or the path you're hunting for.

It's the in-editor counterpart to this documentation site — same information, faster to reach, and the shortcut chips reflect your current bindings (not the defaults), so it's always accurate even after you remap.

Help dialog — overview


Where to find it

  • Top bar → avatar → Help & Tutorials (HelpCircle icon).
  • Command palette (Ctrl+K) → "Help & cheatsheet".

No dedicated hotkey by default. Remap it in the Keyboard shortcuts dialog if you reach for it often.


Anatomy

RegionWhat
Intro + actionsOne-line description + two buttons: Take the tour (re-runs the onboarding tour, Sparkles icon) and Open full docs (this site, opens in a new tab).
Search barAuto-focused on open. Case-insensitive substring match across the entry title, body, "Where to find it" path, and shortcut IDs. Clear button (×) on the right empties the query.
Filter chipsAll (N) plus one chip per category — Tools / Layers / Color / Animation / Workspace / Gamedev / Export. Each chip shows its entry count.
Entry listScrollable, max-height ~104. Empty state shows No entries match "{query}". when nothing matches.
FooterSingle Close button.

How an entry is shaped

Each row carries:

Help dialog — single entry

  • Category label — 10 px uppercase muted text (e.g. TOOLS, WORKSPACE).
  • Title — feature name (e.g. "Pencil & Eraser", "Indexed Mode", "Layer linking").
  • Shortcut chips — one <kbd> per bound action, e.g. P, Shift+E, Alt+C. These read from the same registry that powers the Keyboard shortcuts dialog, so remapping in one place updates the other instantly.
  • Body — 1–3 lines of plain text describing what the feature does.
  • Where to find it — small Sparkles icon + UI path (e.g. "Tools panel → Brush → Custom brushes"). Only shown for entries that have a UI surface; reference-only entries (like keyboard concepts) omit it.

The query box does a case-insensitive substring match across every field of the entry: title, body, "Where to find it" text, and the shortcut IDs (so typing shift+e finds the entry bound to that key). Filter chips compose with the query — pick a category to scope, then search inside it.

Some examples:

QueryMatches
shadeShade tool, Shading ramps
magicMagic Wand
rampShading ramps (body match)
sliceSlice tool, Slices for gamedev
ctrl+kCommand palette (shortcut id match)
tools panel → brushEvery brush-related entry (path match)

There's no fuzzy matching — typos won't match. If you can't find something, drop the query and use the category filter instead.


Entries shipped today

22 entries grouped into 7 categories:

CategoryEntries
ToolsPencil & Eraser, Selection, Color Replace, Shade
LayersLayer Groups, Layer Linking, Solo Mode
ColorIndexed Mode, Color Cycles, Palette Tools, Quick Palette Swap
AnimationFrames Timeline, Frame Tags, Frame Interpolation, Onion Skin
WorkspaceTile Preview, Symmetry, Pixel-perfect, Reference Images
GamedevSlices, Auto-tile 47, Workspace Presets
ExportSmart Upscale, Sprite Sheet + Aseprite JSON

This list grows with each release. The Help dialog is the fastest lookup for "what does X do, and what key triggers it" — use it as a daily reference and keep this docs site for deeper recipes / spec material.


Help dialog vs. command palette vs. docs site

Three reference surfaces live inside the editor; here's when to use which:

You want to…Use
Run an action right nowCommand palette (Ctrl+K)
Look up what a feature does + its current shortcutHelp dialog
Read a workflow / recipe / specThis docs site

Motestack is a personal hobby project. The editor and these docs ship under no warranty — back up your `.mstack` files.