Working on web-based projects over the years, there have been many times that I wanted the capability of using a single linked file throughout multiple PSD documents, much in the same way Adobe's InDesign has this function for large multiple page documents. This would have saved untold hours of mundane and repetitive work, as a simple copy change such as "Main" to "Home" in a large site's navigation would require only one file to be changed, instead of every single page. Unfortunately though, this was merely a dream until a discovery I had a few weeks back.
Recently, a large non-profit came to Springbox to redesign their site, a digital treasure chest of information and opportunities on a specific topic affecting millions. As you might imagine, the breadth of the content on the site was huge, with a rough estimate of more than 300+ pages.
Having worked on a large redesign recently, I had a strong desire to find a new system to allow quick updates to commonly used elements throughout the site, such as the header, the footer, a general tout layout and the styling of a call-to-action arrow. As these elements are used virtually on every page — particularly with the arrow being used 10+ times on multiple pages, changing these individual items can literally take up hours of time — even on only a handful of pages.
At this point, I must admit my great love for a half-solve to this issue — the introduction of smart objects in Photoshop. If you have not worked with smart objects, or just want a great refresher on the subject, go check out Viget Lab's great article.
Moving along, I say that smart objects are half-solve because these embedded linked files are only applicable to one page. For example, make a custom arrow, turn it into a smart object, then make copies of this smart object and distribute them to the rest of the page. A few days later the client wants to change it, just go in, change the smart object once and it will automatically change this for all instances of the smart object on the rest of the page. Magic! I love smart objects. I really do. So now we just needed to expand this functionality to reach 300 or 5,100 pages.
At this point, I did the obvious: I fired up Google to see what the internets had to offer on the subject. I found others were searching for a solution as well. All of this searching led me to the work of Mike Hale and Jeff Transberry who wrote a script to do just what I was looking for.
So here's the new workflow for a sample project, Goodness Inc., after downloading the script and installing it via the Adobe Extension Manager:
Example Site Layout and Content
Step 1
Design the homepage with folder groupings for Header, Hero Area, Footer, etc.
Step 2
Select the Header folder in the Photoshop layers palette and choose "Convert to Smart Object."
Step 3
Double click the icon for the Smart Object in the Layer Palette, thus opening up the Smart Object as a separate document.
Dialog Box for editing a Smart Object as a separate document:
Content of Header Smart Object:
Folder Panel content of Header Smart Object:
Step 4
Save the Smart Object in a new folder within the project file, which I label "Universal Elements" or whatever is easiest for you to distinguish.
Step 5
When I am ready to bring in the header for a new page on the site, I go to File --> Place --> then browse to the "Universal Elements" folder and select the file.
Step 6
I now open up the Window pallete options, and pull up the "Links" window. I see that this Smart Object is actually a linked object. From this "Links" window, I have a few options: I can refresh the panel to get the latest link info, re-link the object, or I can edit the original.
The Window > Links panel, as relative to the selected layer, in this case being the "Header" smart object.
I then repeat the process of placing the element in all pages that need it.
Follow-Up Steps
If a week later, the nav copy needs to change from "HOME" to "MAIN," I can now edit the single source file "Header.psd" located in the "Universal Elements" folder, edit the file and save it. Then I will need to open each unique page's PSD, open the links panel, and refresh the links to see that the new element is present. Lastly, I can now save all the updated jpegs.
Not a one-step magic fix, but a timesaver nonetheless.
I do hope that in CS5, Adobe steps up their game and makes an integrated solution for this, as well as a "Character / Paragraph Style // CSS for multiple PSD documents" solution, but that's a different conversation.
In the meantime, a huge thanks to the great work by Mike Hale and Jeff Transberry!! This has saved me hours and hours of frustrating, repetitive and mundane copy changes. Thanks guys!
And as always, if you find an even better way to use / tweak the insights I have shared here, I'd love to hear them!
Lastly, there are rumblings of Illustrator being able to do a lot of similar things (symbols, multiple art board documents, xml-driven text fields), some of which you might soon find in a follow-up article here on the Insight blog.
DISCLAIMER: I can only verify that this works on Macs, running CS4.