Related actions presented as a small cluster of buttons, aligned and with similar graphic treatments.
A group of related actions on a UI panel that’s richly organized and always visible.
Place buttons and other actions next to the items they act upon, but hide them until the user hovers the pointer over them.
A big and well labeled button that finishes a transaction at the end of the visual flow.
Change menu labels dynamically to show precisely what they will do when invoked.
Show users a preview or summary of what will happen when they perform an action.
Show the user how much progress has been made so far on a time-consuming operation.
Variant: throbber
Provide a way to instantly cancel a time-consuming operation, with no side effects.
Provide a way to easily reverse a series of actions performed by the user.
Keep a visible record of the actions a user performs—what was done to what, and when.
Read about macros in the textbook.
http://quince.infragistics.com/Patterns/
http://www.digicamhelp.com/processing-photos/basic-editing/picasa/
http://patternry.com/p=primary-secondary-actions/
http://www.welie.com/patterns/showPattern.php?patternID=processing-page
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:Spinning_wheel_throbber.gif
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOo3_User_Guides/Getting_Started/Undoing_and_redoing_changes
http://www.snaphow.com/access-ftp-account-from-windows-7-explorer-without-ftp-clients/