Photoshop CS3 Undressed! Using actions
This week, I’m going to reveal a few secrets about actions that can help you save time, effort and energy.
Furling/unfurling
You can furl/unfurl actions by clicking on the triangle next to the action set name by Alt/Opt-clicking the triangle button. This can save time when you have unfurled a number of actions and want to furl them or want to view all the steps in a complex action.
Button mode
You can view the actions as buttons, which you might prefer. To do so, choose Button Mode from the Actions palette menu. If you have assigned a colour to the action when you recorded it, the button will honour it. You can assign a colour to a button when you create an action or at any time by double-clicking an action (not action set). The palette has to be in standard mode, not button mode, to able to do this.
Duplicating
You can duplicate an action set by dragging it and dropping it on the “Create new set” button, next to the play button, in the Actions palette. Likewise, you can duplicate an action step by dragging it onto the “Create new action” button, next to the trash button. You can also Alt/Opt-drag.
Editing
Once an action has been created, you can edit it. You can add more steps, rearrange the order of the steps, or change recorded values. For example, say the action calls the Smart Sharpen filter and sharpens an image by Amount: 100% and you want to reduce amount to 75%. Take the following steps.
- Open a test image
- Double-click on the Smart Sharpen step
- Change the value when the Smart Sharpen dialog opens and click OK
- Save the action by selecting the action set and choosing Save Actions from the palette menu
If you want to add a new step to a recorded action. Take the following steps.
- Select the action or a step within the action
- Click the record button
- Perform the action in Photoshop
- Stop recording
- Save action by selecting the set and choosing Save Actions from the palette menu
To rearrange the steps, simply drag and drop. You can drag and drop between different action sets. If you want to leave the original in place, you can duplicate steps by Alt/Opt-dragging. For example, say you have recorded a complex step and you would like to include it in another action. Just unfurl the target action and then Alt/Opt-drag the step from the source into the target. You don’t need to unfurl the target action but it helps because you can then see exactly where Photoshop is going to add the step.
Linking actions
You link several actions, so that they play one after the other. To do so, take these steps:
- Open a test file
- Select the lead action (don’t run it)
- Click the record button
- Select the action you want to run/link when the first action stops running
- Click the play button
- Stop recording
- Save action by selecting the set and choosing Save Actions from the palette menu
Opening dialogs
If you call some dialogs on a regular basis, for example, Smart Sharpen or Image Size, you can call them by pressing just one key. Here’s what you do:
- In the Actions palette, select a current set or create a new one
- Click the “Create new action” button
- Assign a function key in the New Action dialog pop-up and click the record button
- Choose Insert Menu Item from the Actions palette menu
- Select a menu item, such as Smart Sharpen or Image Size and click OK
- Stop recording and save action
Now each time you want to go to the inserted menu item, just press the assigned key.
Changing recorded values in dialogs
You can change recorded values in dialogs, such as Image Size, Smart Sharpen, etc, on a per-image basis.
When dialogs are recorded in an action, their presence is indicated by an empty box next to the action step. By clicking in the box (Toggle dialog on/off), you can force the action to pause and the dialog to show. Once the dialog shows, change values and click OK for the action to continue.
Playing actions
If you have lots of actions loaded or actions unfurled and the play button is too far from the action, you can play it by holding down Ctrl/Cmd and double-clicking it. This will also work equally well for playing single steps.
To debug or observe all the steps in an action, choose Playback Options from the Actions palette menu and then select Step by Step, or select Pause and then enter a value, and click OK.
You can skip steps by clicking on the tick icon located by the action step in the Actions palette. To enable a step, click in the empty box (Toggle item on/off). This can be handy for recording a long action and making it do several jobs by simply ticking steps on/off on a per-image or per-batch process basis.
That’s all for now, folks!
Copyright©2008, Shangara Singh.
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