P: Inline, on canvas Smart Object Editing (Symbols)

[daveinpublicity]

Brief title for your desired feature:
Inline Smart Object Editting

How would you like the feature to work?
Make Smart Objects editable without double clicking them. Add a drop down arrow so that you can see all of the layers (just like folders). Then, you can edit right there. If you have multiple instances of the smart object, you can watch them all update together.

Why is this feature important to you?
For one, I could edit more quickly. Also, with this functionality I would be able to edit projects in an 'environment'. If I'm making a backdrop for a stage (which I do), I can take a picture of the stage, and work on the project within the actual stage, and make a better composition that is more cohesive with the surroundings. When you're done, you can just export the smart object, it's already got the right dpi, dimensions, color mode.... it's done. I could paint light shadows in the main canvas over areas that are in the dark, so that I automatically make those colors brighter in the 'smart object' (that feels like a folder) without even thinking. I could place objects in front of the smart object that will be covered by a speaker or a person. You could also use it for product design, to create a label directly on a bottle. Or if you want to create entire projects in one psd, where you've got an empty business card, dvd, dvd box, poster, all in one file and in one fell swoop you finish the whole job. I could see it used for billboard designs, and many other projects.

BTW, you could make two modes for Smart Objects. When you first place/create a smart object, it is in normal mode. But, as soon as you skew it (to give it perspective, or just to squash it), it enters perspective mode. When you choose the brush tool and paint on a layer in a smart object in 'perspective' mode, you see a light green square on top of the smart object that represents the smart object's boundaries if it were flat. As you paint in the light green boundaries, you see the edits happening in the skewed perspective of the smart object. That could be very handy for many different scenarios. Same with the type tool and every other tool.

[Norman Sanders]

If each button was masked, one overall color layer would change them all regardless of their number or position. 

[davescm]

Hi

One way relies on the fact that duplicate smart objects in a document are linked to the original so changing the original content also changes the duplicate. So:

1. Create some fill layers and put each in a smart object and then put them all in a group called Master Colours and turn off visibility.

2. Where you want to use one of those colours create a duplicate smart object and clip it to the object you want to colour (Alt+Click on the border between the two in the layers panel).

3. Changing the colour in the smart object, changes all the instances of that colour.

Before changing colour :

After changing Colour A and Colour B

Dave

[Katie Houghton]

I can do this in Illustrator and InDesign but not Photoshop. Your best bet is Smart Objects or Layer Comps. You can also make a request with Adobe: Feature Request/Bug Report Form - Adobehttps://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

This feature would allow you to drill inside of a smart object, while seeing it in context with the surrounding layers. Maybe it doesn't even open the smart object into a new document at all, but simply changes the layers window and scales the document resolution accordingly.

The existing feature 'convert to layers' doesn't really fulfill the utility of this request, since this feature may alter the resolution of the smart object's content. For myself, retaining maximum resolution while shrinking an object's scale is the more useful feature of a smart object.

In this way, my proposed feature would act similar to the 'edit in place' feature from Adobe Animate.

[Max Johnson - PlayStudios]

This would be immensely helpful for the artists at my studio. Perhaps it is more feasible to have the option to do a lower-res live-update in the main document instances when working on an embedded smart object? Then it does a true update on save?

The closest I've gotten is by using linked objects instead and linking the main .psb *back into* the one that is supposed to be embedded and using it as the background... very jankey.

[AlphaOri]

I would like to be able to edit smart objects "in place" meaning I don't want it to open in a new document.  I want to be able to edit it while still in the document it resides.  Imagine having to design the wheel of a car but not being able to see how it looks on the car until you're done?  This is the current experience, unless I'm missing something.

Right now, I would have to duplicate the smart layer, then use "Convert to Layers" (thank you for that)--edit it in the context of the entire design as I want it, then drag those newly designed layers into the separate document window of a smart object I edit.

It would be nice to have a feature as this: Right-click (on smart object) > Edit in Place.  Perhaps a dotted border around the edges of the smart object that I can turn on/off upon mouseover while editing can remind  the user they're editing a smart object.  Once complete (i.e. if the user double clicks out, or if the user clicks a "I'm done editing" button at the top of the document window), then all other smart objects update with the edited design.

[TheManPerry]

I know, I know, I know...Smart Object, double-click, edit, save, ...

Still seems to me like my computer, in the year 2021, should be able to crunch enough numbers to have at least 1 realtime, transformable, exact copy of a layer in my Photoshop layer stack. I could really use such a feature right now and I'm still blown away that such a feature doesn't exist in the most powerful pixel-pushing app of all time.

Or, maybe I need to be educated on the subject again?

[Bob_Hallam]

What are you trying to acomplish?  Nan you requrst this in the form of a question?  I'm sure someone here can help you.  

[Kukurykus]

Moderator please remove Actions and scripting label from this thread (and remove my post).