I have organised my (many!) figures in a file listing them all (\useexternalfigure[][][width=...]) I find it very convenient to adjust the width there and not in the \placefigure part of the single chapters. I suppose it is presently not possible to also control the placement (inner, outer and such) from \useexternalfigure. Of course I have no idea whether that would be possible/difficult/easy. But if it's easy to implement, just take it as a (non-urgent) suggestion. Cheers, Jörg