Can we still place Windows shortcuts to plugins (located in other versions or apps that utilize PS-style plugins) into the CS Plugins directory and access them that way rather than reinstalling them directly into the CS Plugins directory?
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That’s pretty unequivocal, Daryl. It doesn’t work for me.
I created a folder in my Windows Program Files directory called "Plugins". In that folder I placed a copy of the freeware downloadable plugin GX Gothic, from Graphicxtras.com. I created a Windows shortcut to that plugin and placed it in the Plugins folders of: PS CS and a copy of Photoshop Elements 2 that came with my scanner. The filter shows up in the ImageReady and Elements Filter menus, and works fine, but it doesn’t show up in the PS CS menu. The filter *itself*, when placed in the PS CS plugins folder, works fine.
Please, can someone just confirm or disconfirm this problem? I’m not even that concerned about placing shortcuts to plugins in Photoshop CS; I’m more worried about what else might be broken.
D_RY, did you try to point to your other plug-in folder in the preferences instead? Did you put the shortcut in the photoshop only folder? try to move the working shortcut to a PSCS folder
Pierre: Yes, directing CS to use the other folder directly works. Yes, I tried the "working shortcut" in the Photoshop only folder, as well as the toplevel PS CS plugins folder, and in the various sublevel folders also. The "working shortcut" IS in a PSCS folder, and, as I said originally, it comes up fine in ImageReady. (And, yes, when the shortcut is placed in the Photoshop Only folder, it does NOT come up in ImageReady.) (And, no, it doesn’t come up in PSCS but, yes, does come up in ImageReady when a shortcut to the user-created, not PSCS, Plugins *folder* is used rather than a shortcut to the filter).
Please, could somebody who actually has plugin shortcuts actually working in PS CS just TELL me that they have them working.
Believe me, I’ve tried every iteration of various possibilities of placement so far. And, yes, I trashed the preferences and reconstituted them. Yes, I reinstalled and even reactivated PSCS.
Gig of memory, Windows XP, gobs of disk space, etc.
Yes, I’ve got working shortcuts to my PS Plug-ins in place for PS CS. My short reply of "yes", was because I thought the answer to be that simple, given that you appeared to know exactly what you were doing. However, now that I look into things a little further, albeit on a Win2K PC at the moment, it appears that not all shortcuts work as well as I assumed. So, the problems you’re seeing may be specific to a given plug-in.
For example, I see that an EyeCandy 4000 shortcut works just fine. however, a Flaming Pear Flood shortcut, which works great with PS7, didn’t appear to work with PS CS. But, waiting for a far longer time than should be necessary, the filter was eventually invoked. So, even though there apppears to be some unacceptable delay, the shortcut does still work. I’ll have to explore this again later in WinXP when I’ve got more time.
While I’ve used this shortcut approach before in the past, I will say that I’ve given it up in favor of simply using the secondary plug-ins folder reference in my PS preferences. Still, the shortcut approach has its merits for managing your plug-ins and which ones get loaded for which app.
Daryl: Thanks for the longer reply. Yes, you seem to have them. I’m not talking about the shortcutted flter not working, though, I’m talking about it not even showing up on the PS CS munu. It works fine in PS CS when not shortcutted, and it works fine *as a shortcut* under ImageReady and Elements 2.0, as well when it is directly installed.
I’ve tried this with some tryout Flaming Pear and other filters now, and none of them show up when shortcutted under PS CS, so it isn’t just one plugin.
For some reason, this problem really aggravates me.
No help here, but just so you know, I checked out the shortcut question tonight on my WinXP system. For shorcuts placed into the PS CS Plug-ins directory that pointed to each of 7 different plug-in families, all of them were accessible just fine in PS CS. The problem you’re seeing may be one of those we all hate….one that is random and difficult to dupliate.
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