Can I create an asset from something I have already created on my template? As opposed to having to create the asset first?
Several widgets work this way. For example, if you have an image widget on your template and you upload an image using the Image Widget on the template, it will automatically create an asset and drop it in the “Assets/uploads/images” folder for you. This also applies to content created by the “File Widget”, “Form Widget” and “Poll Widget”.
When you upload a file using the File Widget in the template, it will be created as an asset in Assets/uploads/files
For Forms, it will be in Asset/Forms, for Polls, it will be in Assets/Polls etc.
We are planning to add the ability to save local content from a template or page as an asset in the 2.7 release, which is currently under development.
As an update to this question, the ability to promote existing content to a shared asset was delivered in v2.7 and is currently available.