Action

Create Your Own Photoshop Action

 

1. Show Photoshop actions palette by clicking Window > Actions or simply pressing Alt+F9.
   
2. Open the image that you want to apply the actions to, the image you would like to take multiple sizes copies from in this example.
3. It is a good idea to group your actions in sets so click the folder icon located at the bottom of the actions palette to create a new set and name your set. I will name it "Custom Actions".
4. Click the "Create new action" icon located at the bottom of the actions palette (the one that looks like create a new layer).
5. Give a descriptive name to your action in the "New Action" window. You can assign a function key for your action or a color if you like and click Record.
   
6. Now, start the boring repetitive tasks (for the last time). Notice, the speed you do your steps does not matter at all, Photoshop will attempt to do those steps as fast as possible when you play this action afterwards.
7. In our example, I want to make an action to generate thumbs of an image with multiple sizes for multiple sites, so click Image > Image Size and type 75 for width, 75 for height and click Ok. Photoshop will generate a new action under "Create Thumbs" and call it "Image Size" or whatever step you have done here.
   
8. Click File > Save for web, choose the format that you like and choose a name for you image. NOTICE that Photoshop will generate the same file when you play this action again so make sure to choose a bath that you are sure it will be there when you run this action afterwards or it will fail. In this example, I will choose "C:\75X75.gif" for file name and path.
9. Repeat the same steps again with different file sizes and different file names, make sure to start from the biggest file size and move to smaller ones for a better quality.
10. After you have finished whatever steps you want, click the Stop icon located at the bottom of the Actions palette. Now you have completed your first Photoshop actions set. If you look at your actions palette now, you will see all the steps you have done, click the little arrow on the left of every step to see its details.
    
11. Now for the fun part, if you want to create different thumb sizes for another image, open the other image in Photoshop, click the little arrow on the left of the "Custom Actions" set in the Actions palette. Select the "Create Thumbs" action, click the play icon located at the bottom of the Actions palette and watch Photoshop doing all the boring work for you!
    
12. You can modify any of the actions simply by double clicking on it in the actions window, you can also delete any step by choosing it and clicking the delete icon located at the bottom of the Actions palette.
13. Do you want a confirmation before running your action? It is easy! Click the arrow located at the right top of the Actions palette, choose Insert Stop, type the message that you want appear, check Allow Continue and press Ok. Move the resulting Stop action to the top of all the other actions.
    
14. You can temporarily disable any action in the action set by clicking the left most check box next to it or only disable its modal window by clicking the check box next to it.
15. To play an action on a file                    Open the file.
    Do one of the following:
    To play an entire action, select the action name, and click the Play button  in the Actions palette, or choose Play from the palette menu.
    If you assigned a key combination to the action, press that combination to play the action automatically.
    To play part of an action, select the command from which you want to start playing, and click the Play button in the Actions palette, or choose Play from the palette menu.

To play a single command in an action
Select the command you want to play.
Do one of the following:
Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the Play button in the Actions palette.
Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and double-click the command.

To specify playback speed
You can adjust an action’s playback speed or pause it to help you debug an action.
Choose Playback Options from the Actions palette menu.
Specify a speed:
Accelerated Plays the action at normal speed (the default).
Step By Step Completes each command and redraws the image before going on to the next command in the action.
Pause For Specifies the amount of time Photoshop should pause between carrying out each command in the action.
Select Pause For Audio Annotation to ensure that each audio annotation in an action is played before the next step in the action is initiated. Deselect this option if you want an action to continue while an audio annotation is playing.
Click OK.

To insert a menu item in an action
Choose where to insert the menu item:
Select an action’s name to insert the item at the end of the action.
Select a command to insert the item at the end of the command.
Choose Insert Menu Item from the Actions palette menu.
With the Insert Menu Item dialog box open, choose a command from its menu.
Click OK.


To add commands to an action
Do one of the following:
Select the action name to insert a new command at the end of the action.
Select a command in the action to insert a command after it.
Click the Record button, or choose Start Recording from the Actions palette menu.
Record the additional commands.
Click the Stop button to stop recording.

To delete an action or command
In the Actions palette, select the action or command you want to delete.
Delete the action or command:
Click the Delete icon  on the Actions palette. Click OK to delete the action or command.
Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Delete icon to delete the selected action or command without displaying a confirmation dialog box.
Drag the action or command to the Delete icon on the Actions palette to delete the selected action or command without displaying a confirmation dialog box.
Choose Deletefrom the Actions palette menu.

To delete all actions in the Actions palette
 Choose Clear All Actions from the Actions palette menu.
Even after clearing all actions, the Actions palette can be restored to its default set of actions

To rename an action
 Double-click the action name in the Actions palette and enter a new name.

To save a set of actions
Select a set.
Choose Save Actions from the Actions palette menu.
Type a name for the set, choose a location, and click Save.
You can save the set anywhere. However, if you place the file in the Presets/Photoshop Actions folder inside the Photoshop program folder, the set will appear at the bottom of the Actions palette menu after you restart the application.

To load a set of actions
 Do one of the following:
Choose Load Actions from the Actions palette menu. Locate and select the action set file, and then click Load. (In Windows, Photoshop action set files have the extension .atn.)
Select an action set from the bottom of the Actions palette menu.

To restore actions to the default set
Choose Reset Actions from the Actions palette menu.
Click OK to replace the current actions in the Actions palette with the default set, or click Append to add the set of default actions to the current actions in the Actions palette.