Action to move layers between documents?

AR
Posted By
Andrew_Ridge
Feb 20, 2008
Views
854
Replies
11
Status
Closed
Hello World!

Does anyone know how to create an action that will open a second document, select all of the layers (or layers within a group) and move/drag them back into my working document?

I have tried all kinds of combinations but only received the "…is not currently available" alert; somehow, move is not recorded.

Thanks!

Andrew.
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AR
Andrew_Ridge
Feb 20, 2008
BTW: Photoshop CS3 standard
P
Phosphor
Feb 20, 2008
Try working with Duplicate Layer or Duplicate Layer Set. You can specify a target document in the Destination dropdown.

Actions will open files within a folder automatically. I don’t recommend having any Open commands in an Action.

Make sure your target document is NOT in the folder being processed.
AR
Andrew_Ridge
Feb 20, 2008
Thanks Ed, I’m trying it out now. I’m ASTONISHED that there isn’t a simple Import > Layers option…
AR
Andrew_Ridge
Feb 20, 2008
Because I want to import a single file’s layers into many other files, the script complains that the importing file’s name doesn’t match the recorded action. Any ideas?
P
Phosphor
Feb 20, 2008
Oh, I thought you were going the other way.

It’s probably scriptable. Maybe ask on the Photoshop Scripting Forum.
AR
Andrew_Ridge
Feb 20, 2008
Will do. Thanks, ~A.
P
Phosphor
Feb 20, 2008
I do have one idea, though it may be unwieldy…Perhaps a simple Copy/Paste. You would have to move through the Layers stack Layer by Layer, and move from one document to the other back and forth, but that is doable I think.
AR
Andrew_Ridge
Feb 21, 2008
Ed, unfortunately Copy doesn’t copy the layer, only its contents, effectively rasterising any editable layers.
AR
Andrew_Ridge
Feb 22, 2008
Workaround: If transferring layers from A to B, make a new layer in B, convert to a smart object, then Right Click > Replace contents and choose file A. The layers transfer across but in a smart object. I haven’t yet worked out how to extract the layers from there. Again, how on earth has this been overlooked? ~A.
P
Phosphor
Feb 22, 2008
Can that be used in an Action and batched?
AR
Andrew_Ridge
Feb 23, 2008
Yes it works as an action, but it’s then such a pain to work on the smart object as independent from the background image.

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