CS2 "Place..." not dynamic?

Hello,
Previous product catalog was authored (outside) entirely in Photoshop CS2.
We have the source files and output files and I am reworking it for new
products.

There are a number of common elements I want to "File/Place..." so that I
can update these elements to taste once the basic layout is set.
I had considered converting the whole thing over to a Pagemaker layout, but
there are a number of adjustment layers in use, that I would need to
replicate those on the individual product images.

I saw that CS2 has "File/Place..." so I tried that.
However these placed SmartObjects do not seem to update like they did in
Pagemaker (i.e. change the source file and all instances of the placed image
would be updated on the next Open or by updating them manually.
Editing one of these SmartObjects seems to open the image as a separate temp
file (with the same name as the source). This does not seem to be what I
need.
I see that Replacing content of a SmartObject with the latest version of the
source image also updates all instances of that SmartObject in that
particular document. That's certainly convenient, but I have 36 separate
documents in the works.

I was just wondering if there is an easy method of refreshing the
SmartObject from the original source file (after its content has been
changed)?
Or if there is a different way to embed an external file, that can be
updated easily? Something that works like "File/Place... No Include" in
Pagemaker.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Scott in Dunedin