P: Externally Linked Smart Objects

Keep the link between smart object documents and the Photoshop documents they are used in.

With that feature you could have a project with a folder containing all your smart objects main design documents could use. If you update a smart object, when opening a main design document that uses that smart object, you have the ability to update it. An example would be a global header smart object that's used in 10 separate documents.

I use smart objects with layer comps and for smaller projects this works fine (like a small 10 page site where you have a layer comp for each page) but with larger projects where sometimes you have 20+ layer comps showing interactions and a user journey through a feature, you need more than a single document for multiple features. This is where a folder containing reusable assets you can update separately would be extremely useful.

What if smart layers could point to other actual Photoshop Documents.
You could have shared design-elements between different documents. For us working with web and app design, this would be a killer feature, especially if you could share those Smart Layer documents in a team.

Edit: Just realized, there is a similar topic here: http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh...

It would very useful to have an option to save Smart Objects as external documents and have them linked to Photoshop documents instead of always being embedded into them.

It could work similar to InDesign's links and the main advantage would be to be able to reuse the same Smart Object in several Photoshop documents.

Let's imagine a scenario when an unapproved logo is used on several designs (separate PSD documents) to show how it works, and it has been resized and edited with layer styles differently in every case. When the client asks for changes on the logo, the designer has to replace all instances of the same logo in each document. It would be much easier to be able to save the logo as an External Smart Object, or Linked Smart Object and use that in all the designs so when that external file is edited, upon opening the Photoshop documents it will automatically update to its latest state.

The disadvantage of this is that it will lead to missing links once the linked Smart Objects are not available or renamed. It could be handled the same way again as in InDesign. The user should be able to reembed the Smart Object or update it, replace it and so forth.

Hi Xavier,
I'm curious -- what kinds of problems are you running into? If you're finding bugs or problems, you can post about them here or at http://www.canlinkit.com/contact/su

Hi Aaron,

Yes, in fact I had already installed it on my CS6 beta, before to post there. And it truely does the job most of the time. But there are still some issues, UI diffrencies, problems in links stability.

Hi Xavier,
Did you see the link above for the plugin at http://CanLinkIt.com ? I think it may do what you're looking for.

Hello,
Like everyone else, I'm interested in such a feature. One good idea could be to use Bridge or mini bridge to do that.
Great job, keep going.

Thanks

I would love to see global smart objects that can be used across multiple files. For example when designing a website I can have 1 global smart object file called header embedded into all the files and then only need to change it once to update all the psd's.

This relates specifically to web design and projects with multiple pages. Is it possible to create a way to easily link common elements across several PSDs (e.g. having a global navigation PSD that, when edited, would automatically update across all the comps within your project?

No problem! Please drop me a line when you've been using it a while and let me know how it's going.