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Subject: Export figure interface - drag icon to location
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:47:01 +0000 (UTC)
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Hi folks

I'd like an icon on my figure toolbar that I can just drag to anywhere, e.g. a folder or an open powerpoint presentation, and it will have the effect of exporting the figure to png and then doing whatever the OS would do if the icon for that png were dragged in that way.

This would make it super easy to export figures to powerpoint - just drag the icon to the relevant slide - and make documenting my work a breeze. It's currently a faff to export to png then drag the png to powerpoint.

As I see it, the button would need to do these things:
1. Fool the OS that it is a file, i.e. somehow point to a real exported bitmap of the figure.
2. Delay the OS or any application from reading the file until the figure has had a chance to be exported to it.
3. Delete the original file once the process is over (any recipient application will have to copy the file rather than link to it).

Does anybody think this is even remotely possible, and if so, how? Alternatively, if not, why not (so I don't waste much time)?

I don't mind if the solution is Windows only.

Thanks.
Oliver