I was customizing a search core results web part display recently and I wanted to have a sinle instance of the XSL used to translate the results since I will have multiple instances of the same search core results on many different site collections. I thought the "XSL Link" web part property of the search core results web part would allow this, but I was mistaken.

The issue is you can only reference an XSL file in the XSL Link web part property only if the XSL file resides on the same site collection as the web part is displayed. I tried referencing the file from _layouts and received and error, I tried referencing the file from another site collection, received same error. I know permissions is not a problem since none of these locations are locked down.

If there is anyone that knows a workaround for this I would love to hear it. Also, this was on an instance of MOSS Standard SP1.