On 30 March 2010 17:56, Yann Lossouarn
wrote:
For example when you want to reduce the filesize of photos before
sending it to someone by email. I'd like to "copy" current photo,
"paste" it to Gimp, crop it and reduce it, then copy/paste it to
Thunderbird without having to navigate inside Nautilus.
Doubleplus good if it integrates with a file versioning system that stores the intermediate versions at each step.
Really ? I think it would great having a standardized way to perform some sort of basic "copy/paste" action aimed at the entire file you're working on, in order to transfer the file from an application to another.
Actually, the proposed idea generalizes in a simple way to define _arbitrary_ workflows for the desktop. This workflow button is a *great* way to integrate in a user-friendly way the complex Workflow features as seen in Content Management Systems. Think of the possibilities.
The available targets for the document could be defined by external administrators (the distro creators, or an online repository) to which the user can subscribe. Throwing the current document to a target could have extra processes other than opening in a different application - such as versioning, saving a copy to a shared folder, applying a visual filter to an image...
The simple proposed use cases ("Open with" and "Upload to") are likely the more useful. But if these buttons can be configured by the user to their liking (one for the "local workflows" and the other for sharing), it can be a powerful and innovative feature.