How can I open a Photoshop file as a template?

[birckcmi]

Many years ago, if I wanted to open a file in Illustrator such that I could draw over it easily with black lines clearly visible on a 50% faded version of the image, I could open the file As A Template, and even, if I wished, adjust the visibility up or down. That was quite helpful, if  wanted to incorporate parts or all of a photo or a previous sketch into my drawing. Unfortunately, far as I can tell, it's no longer possible to do that without taking a nuhmber of time-consuming steps. Am I correct in thinking that as useful a tool as "open as a template" has been removed from the commands available in Illustrator-or am I just unable to find it?

[Kurt Gold]

The Template option is still available, but you have to use the Place command, not the Open command.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

You can also Open an image in Illustrator and in the Layers panel change the Layer Options to Template.

The disadvantage is that the file does not contain the default swatches, brushes....

[birckcmi · Accepted solution]

Ah! So that's it. It works fine. Since I want to turn the image into a line drawing,  all the handling details aren't an  issue. Thank you very much for pointing out the latter-day approach to "Open as a template". It was useful enough so that I was having trouble believing it had been given the old heave-ho. Many thanks.