Yesod

Although you present three key shortcuts, this does not include the interface prompts the user must address. After the user invokes a Save As (either through menu or key shortcut) he or she will still be prompted to submit the name, type, and location of the file; including a confirmation to overwrite when necessary; finalizing with a 'Save Configuration' prompt that the user must also address. After undoing the last action of flattening, the work-space still remains in a state of editing the last saved file; the one that is flattened and not the one that is layered. This is risky as an artist that continues working with this state may lose all their hard-work (e.g., system crash, power outage,... acts of a god) since changes are only being made to the flattened file and not the layered. The advantage to the proposed implementation at the start of this thread is (1) the user configures the save properties once (i.e., file: name, location, type, settings); (2) the user can then frequently save both the layered and the flattened version of the asset in two key shortcuts, without (3) modifying the state of the workspace and (4) utilizing full hot-loading capabilities of external tools to view the changes rendered by the recipient. -- Yesod

Using the methods given by pdnnoob, the process becomes: (1) File->'Save As...'->[choose file format (.jpg / .png / .tga / etc)]->Confirm Save As->Save Configuration->Flatten Prompt (2) Edit->Undo; File->Save->Confirm Save As Improved, but still pales in comparison to a swift (single) key shortcut. As previously described carefully, frequent iterative saving (>3 saves/minute) becomes hostile with the current setup. A means for the users to frequently save a non-layered copy of the current workspace in a single swift motion without the need swat numerous prompts is one solution. The inspiration for this feature to support engines that implement automatic hot-loading. When an artist changes the flat version of an image asset and saves it, it's automatically reloaded in the engine viewer with the change. -- Yesod Postscript: Is implementing the core spirit of this feature possible under the current plugin system? /edit: added postscript.

Since the inception of Paint.NET, there is one very simple feature that has been missing: the ability to save as copy. Digital images are often distributed and rendered in a flattened file format (e.g., .jpg, .gif, .png); so, an artist most often maintains two different copies of an asset; one that is layered and one that is flattened. This is an important feature (for example) to game developers, as engine platforms typically have the ability to render changes to a material in real-time during development. This means that an artist will frequently need to update the flattened version of an asset while concurrently working on the layered version. Currently, the only (safe) work around is to perform the following: (1) File->Save. // This preserves the layered format to .pdn. (2) File->Save As...->Save as type->Save->Confirm Save As->Save Configuration->Flatten Prompt. // The flattened format is now saved. At this point the workspace is now using the flat file version (e.g., .png). (3) Edit->Undo; File->Save As...->Confirm Save As->Save // The workspace is now back to using the layered file version. A save as copy feature will reduce both the possibility of losing the layered format and the interface hostility during iteration saves. I recommend this be implemented with two new File menu options: Save As Copy, Save Copy. The Save As Copy will function the same as 'Save As...' with the exception of not shifting the workspace into the saved file. The Save Copy feature will use the last Save As Copy selections without prompting the user. This allows the user to iterate copies using a key shortcut and nothing more. If there is no last Save As Copy selections then Save Copy while initialize by invoking a Save As Copy event request. Kindly consider. -- Yesod