Photoshop includes?

August 6, 2009 5:05 AM

I am a programmer trying to use Photoshop. When programming I often use 'includes' to pull in a file that is propagated across the application or website. Is there a similar feature in Photoshop that will allow me to create, say a navigation and then include it in different pages, thus when I change the navigation it will be updated in every photoshop file?
posted by xoe26 to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: This link should help you. Specifically this quote towards the bottom of the comments is talking about what you are trying to do.

"You can make your play button an independent file, and “place” it into your different mockups. The button will appear as a smart object in the layer palette, linked to the original file. If you update the button file, the mockups will ask you if you want to update the link and if you answer yes, they will be updated. Pretty neat. But I dunno if double clicking on the smart object will open the original file or if it will open a “local” copy of it. Gotta try that…"

This link explains in greater detail....

Hope that helps!
posted by pghjezebel at 5:18 AM on August 6, 2009

Response by poster: That is precisly what I was after - thank you so much. Every search I did for Photoshop includes was useless - guess I just needed to know the right term.
posted by xoe26 at 5:35 AM on August 6, 2009

Short answer, people tend to work inside-out, to your way of thinking. They have one big Photoshop file with everything in it, and they show/hide layers to get the different outputs.

So your include is a layer, and the thing it's included in at any given moment is determined by the other layers shown.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:39 AM on August 6, 2009

Some also use two applications, Photoshop and a page layout (Quark, Indesign, Scribus) or illustration (illustration, CorelDraw, Xara) program. That way, the various bits can be saved as separate files, which can then be pulled in multiple layouts. Updating the separate file updates every instance of it in the different layouts.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:54 AM on August 6, 2009

To expand on AmbroseChapel's comment, PS has "Layer Comps" that let you save and restore layer state configurations, so each page of your design could be a comp.
posted by signal at 9:07 AM on August 6, 2009