Action to move layers between documents?

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.

BTW: Photoshop CS3 standard

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.

Thanks Ed, I'm trying it out now. I'm ASTONISHED that there isn't a simple Import > Layers option...

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?

Oh, I thought you were going the other way.

It's probably scriptable. Maybe ask on the Photoshop Scripting Forum.

Will do. Thanks, ~A.

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.

Ed, unfortunately Copy doesn't copy the layer, only its contents, effectively rasterising any editable layers.

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.

Can that be used in an Action and batched?

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.