QoL improvements with file picker, default paths, filenames

[csswright]

Heavy user of LosslessCut for years, amazing project!

One thing I still find somewhat awkward is file renaming, file picking (tested with builtin and with GTK on Linux briefly) and paths.

• If I edit "Output file name" give naming context specific to a video, it gets remembered and is usually not applicable to next video I'm editing. The reset button resets it to a hardcoded default only. I'm thinking an option for the user to to define the default to reset to (available to configure only in the general Settings menu to reduce clutter to the video-specific Setting window) and also an option to choose whether to remember the previous output file name as a checkbox for this video-specific Setting window. That would be useful if you edit multiple videos that you do want to share the output file name template but still be able to reset to your own default when you don't need it anymore by unchecking to not remember anymore.

• Export to a location different from default as a one-time exception (as opposed to permanently defaulting to one location or permanently remembering previous location). Useful again in the scenario of ~/downloads/videoA/--suppose you have videos each in its own subfolders like this and and also videos together in one ~/video directory--sometimes you want to save the resulting video in the former and sometimes in the latter. Instead of simply remembering the previous location, an option to default to e.g. ~/videos and a checkbox to "save to location of current video" would be useful (and the state of this checkbox setting would not be remembered). Currently, I need to be conscious of where the video gets saved depending on where it was last saved but it would be less mental overhead to know where it will be saved unless I prefer to save in the current directory for this video (it's a common use case IMO so a checkbox would be preferred than to navigate to the specific location of the video every time). EDIT: Actually, it would be nice to just have a checkbox setting for "apply settings on this instance only", applicable for all settings.

• Similar to #2115, it would be nice to define different default paths for project files and subtitles for the file picker to open (i.e. input, not just output). For example, define a /tmp/losslesscut/projects for the former (useful when I don't care for the project files at all after an operation is done--they are grouped together in a directory that may be pruned) and for the latter, default to the same path the video is in (very useful if e.g. merging subs for videos in ~/downloads/videoA/videoA.mp4 and subs are in ~/torrents/videoA/, otherwise you have to navigate to different directories for each video). I suppose the current option of "working directory" is where LosslessCut is launched, but using a terminal file manager, it tends to be launched in the same directory as the video (I navigate to the video location in the terminal file manager, select the file, and launch LosslessCut on it). I've tried both the GTK file picker and Losslesscut's builtin file picker.

[mifi]

Hi!

• If I edit "Output file name" give naming context specific to a video, it gets remembered and is usually not applicable to next video I'm editing. The reset button resets it to a hardcoded default only. I'm thinking an option for the user to to define the default to reset to (available to configure only in the general Settings menu to reduce clutter to the video-specific Setting window) and also an option to choose whether to remember the previous output file name as a checkbox for this video-specific Setting window. That would be useful if you edit multiple videos that you do want to share the output file name template but still be able to reset to your own default when you don't need it anymore by unchecking to not remember anymore.

I've added this suggestion to #371 however I'm not sure what's the use case exactly. If you need a different output file name for each new file that you export, why don't you just enter the desired output file name manually then? (without special variables)

• Export to a location different from default as a one-time exception (as opposed to permanently defaulting to one location or permanently remembering previous location). Useful again in the scenario of ~/downloads/videoA/--suppose you have videos each in its own subfolders like this and and also videos together in one ~/video directory--sometimes you want to save the resulting video in the former and sometimes in the latter. Instead of simply remembering the previous location, an option to default to e.g. ~/videos and a checkbox to "save to location of current video" would be useful (and the state of this checkbox setting would not be remembered). Currently, I need to be conscious of where the video gets saved depending on where it was last saved but it would be less mental overhead to know where it will be saved unless I prefer to save in the current directory for this video (it's a common use case IMO so a checkbox would be preferred than to navigate to the specific location of the video every time).

I believe what you're asking is for a button to be able to toggle the output directory setting between selected value and unset (source file's directory)? I think it's similar to #2101 and I agree it would be a nice and simple improvement. I will add the suggestion to #2115

• Actually, it would be nice to just have a checkbox setting for "apply settings on this instance only", applicable for all settings.

you mean you would like to have a special settings checkbox that when checked, will cause all other settings to be reset to default (forgotten) once the app gets closed? Not sure about this but I can add it here.

• Similar to #2115, it would be nice to define different default paths for project files and subtitles for the file picker to open (i.e. input, not just output). For example, define a /tmp/losslesscut/projects for the former (useful when I don't care for the project files at all after an operation is done--they are grouped together in a directory that may be pruned) and for the latter, default to the same path the video is in (very useful if e.g. merging subs for videos in ~/downloads/videoA/videoA.mp4 and subs are in ~/torrents/videoA/, otherwise you have to navigate to different directories for each video). I suppose the current option of "working directory" is where LosslessCut is launched, but using a terminal file manager, it tends to be launched in the same directory as the video (I navigate to the video location in the terminal file manager, select the file, and launch LosslessCut on it). I've tried both the GTK file picker and Losslesscut's builtin file picker.

This sentence is a bit tricky for me to understand. Not sure what are the exact changes you're asking for. The open file dialog defaults to the last opened folder. Are you asking for the initial folder to be changed (after opening losslesscut) to be changed?

If you need to have multiple custom source folders that you pull files from, why can't you just keep all these folders open in your OS's file manager, and then drag-drop files from there into losslesscut?