Many people seem to be unaware of BibDesk's file management capabilities, which 
bothers me.  I also think the user interface can be improved, so I've been 
casually working on a revised file interface (shown in attached screenshot, 
poor quality due to the 40 K message limit).  The goals:

1) Avoid presenting paths to the user
2) Clear drag-and-drop interface
3) Allow an arbitrary number and type of files (we generate the field names)
4) Store links as aliases /and/ relative paths (base64 encoded in BibTeX)
5) Autofile multiple files
6) Allow a viewing any (supported) file in a dedicated window

The attached screenshot shows an editor window.  The toolbar isn't gone, but 
it's hidden, and the author table is no longer in the toolbar.  Current 
functionality: drag (multiple) files to the file view, drag (single) files from 
the file view to Finder.

Note: I think current Local-Url functionality would remain for backwards 
compatibility.  Various users would likely want to avoid what I'm proposing.  
So no whining (yet).

The main window also would have a thumbnail view like this, but you wouldn't be 
able to drop files on it.  The file view is similar to iPhoto's view, in that 
it automatically creates a grid based on a desired thumbnail size.  Any image 
file (incl. PDF/PS), QuickTime, and TextEdit-supported file can be displayed.  
Personally, I don't think this is terribly useful, but many users want linked 
files displayed in the main window; we presently do this only for Local-Url, 
but my suggestion here is a compromise, with 6) above.  We'd likely use Quick 
Look for 6) on Leopard, which would give us even more viewable file types.

Any suggestions from the user community?  Should remote URLs be displayed in 
this view as well (as icons...previewing would be heinous)?  It would also be 
cool if you could open up an @proceedings and see all of its child items' files 
immediately...

-- 
Adam

Attachment: Picture 2.jp2
Description: Binary data

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