5 Replies Latest reply: Feb 29, 2012 6:33 AM by Namdesigner RSS

    Layered slices?

    jaymcdonald Community Member

      I often work on items for the web that I want to slice, but I need to slice them in layers. For instance, a background image, then some transparent PNGs to be placed on top of the background. If I have everything laid our properly in Photoshop, then the layer items all overlap. I can turn off layers and export the background as one slice, then turn off the bkgrd and turn on a foreground item and create a slice for that... and so on. But if I want to go back and re-export the background (due to a change) the overlapping slices cause it to now break up into multiple pieces. I can separate the layered items so that they are off to the side and the slices no longer overlap, but now any adjustments in the layout are hard to make because everything is all separated out. Is there a way to handle leaving the slices overlapped but not have them break up at export?

        • 1. Re: Layered slices?
          Mylenium CommunityMVP

          Not that I know, but I seem to remeber a script that was able to manage multiple different slice sets. If you do a little digging, the relevant post here on this forum might show up or some web search will return something...

           

          Mylenium

          • 2. Re: Layered slices?
            jaymcdonald Community Member

            Hmmm. Thanks. I will have to see if I can locate it.

            • 3. Re: Layered slices?
              Namdesigner Community Member

              Like Mylenium, I do not believe it is possible, and the script might be your best chance. However, should that turn out not to be you can always clear the slices by going VIEW -> CLEAR SLICES. The down side to this is ofcoarse you lose the slices and should you want to change anything later you might have a problem. So it might be a good idea to leave some guides in place where the slices should be... Better yet, create a new document with just the backdround in it, that way you need not change the slices at all. Just be sure to export it to the right folder and that the name is exactly the same as before and you should be good as gold.

               

              Hope this helps.

              • 4. Re: Layered slices?
                jaymcdonald Community Member

                Namdesigner: I have taken multiple approaches to this before. Yes, you can kill the slices, but then you have to re-create them, and if they are slightly off, it causes problems. I have spread the elements out in a single document, and I have separated into individual documents as well... but these require your design to be complete and unchnaging. If layout changes, coordinating changes across the distributed layers is a headache. That's why I was wondering about keeping it all unified and turning slices on and off. What would be ideal is if you could bind a slice to a layer or layer group. Then as you turn the different layers/groups on/off to toggle states, the slices would automatically show/hide.

                • 5. Re: Layered slices?
                  Namdesigner Community Member

                  Indeed. I agree, the solotion I offored is less than ideal, but it is the best I have for the moment. At least with the background as a separate document you can change it without too much worry of the foreground elements and vice versa, since they will go over top - unless of course the background "interacts" with the foreground, in which case there is no way I see to avoid a layborious process.

                   

                  But as you said, having the ability to "layer" slices would make life a whole lot easier indeed. Let's hope Adobe sees this and adds it into future products!