Photoshop cs5 by steve Johnson part 60 docx

Saving Actions into Sets Save Actions into Sets Open a document, and then select the Actions panel.. However, you can insert many non-recordable commands into an action by using an Inse

Once you discover the advantages of using actions, you'll be creating actions for all those dull, boring, repetitive tasks, and life inside Photoshop will never be the same again As the days go on, you'll see your list of actions growing longer and longer Sooner or later (probably sooner), you'll develop so many actions that scrolling down the Actions panel to find your favorite actions becomes a job in itself The Actions panel can hold as many actions as you need, and it also gives you the ability to organize those actions into sets Action sets are like file fold-ers; they hold groups of actions For example, you might have a group

of actions that perform image restoration, and another group for color correction Using the Actions panel, you can create an action set for each different group of actions Once a set is created, it can be removed from the Actions panel, and reloaded when needed Action sets can also be distributed to other users

Saving Actions

into Sets

Save Actions into Sets

Open a document, and then select

the Actions panel.

Click the Create New Set button.

Enter a name for the new set

Click OK.

The new set is added to the

Actions panel

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When you create a new set of actions, Photoshop displays the actions

in the Actions panel, but the actions are not permanently saved to the hard drive That means if you delete an unsaved action or action set, they will be gone forever To stop that from happening, you need to save the sets Not only does this give you the ability to save your pre-cious actions, it lets you share your actions with other Photoshop users For example, you have a friend who's having trouble performing color correction to an image You'd like to help her, but she lives 800 miles away So you create an action that performs the color correction, save the action as a file, and e-mail her the file Now, all she has to do

is click the Actions Options button, and then click Load Actions She now has the action to color correct her images

Saving Actions

as Files

Save Actions as Files

Select the Actions panel.

Click the set you want to save

Click the Actions Options button,

and then click Save Actions.

Enter a name for the action set

The default name will be the

original name of the set

Click the Save In (Win) or Where

(Mac) list arrow, and then click

where to save the set

Click Save.

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Did You Know?

You can access your new Action Set

directly from the Actions dialog box

If you save the new action set in the

Photoshop Actions folder, the set

appears at the bottom of the Actions

Options dialog box

Once you've created an action set, it's a simple matter to organize all of your time-saving actions Think of an action set as a file drawer When you need a specific action, you expand the set, and then locate the proper action You might want to create sets with names such as Color Correction or Special Effects, for easier retrieval Then you can create new actions, or move existing actions, into your organized sets Once the perfect action set is created it can be saved, and even e-mailed to other Photoshop users

Moving and Copying

Actions Between Sets

Move and Copy Actions

Between Sets

Select the Actions panel.

Click a preexisting set, and then

click the expand triangle to open

the set

Use the following move or copy

method:

◆ To move an action, drag the

action from one set to another

◆ To copy an action, hold down

the Alt (Win) or Option (Mac)

key, and then drag the action

from one set to another

Release when your mouse hovers

over the set into which you want

to move or copy the selected set

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When you create an action, you cannot record mouse movements, such as a brush stroke, or any of the View and Window commands

However, you can insert many non-recordable commands into an action by using an Insert Menu Item command The Insert Menu Item command can be used when recording an action or after it has been recorded Inserted commands do not execute until the action is played,

so the file remains unchanged when the command is inserted This gives you the ability to experiment with different non-recordable com-mands without the risk of damaging a valuable image

Inserting a

Non-Recordable Command

into an Action

Insert a Non-Recordable

Command into an Action

Select the Actions panel.

Click an action, and then click the

expand triangle.

Click the name of the action to

insert the item at the end of the

action, or click a specific action

step to insert the item after the

selected step

Click the Actions Options button,

and then click Insert Menu Item.

Select a command from the

available options (the command is

selected by clicking and selecting

an item from Photoshop's

drop-down menu system)

Click OK.

The non-recordable command is

added to the action steps

IMPORTANT When you use

the Insert Menu Item command for

a command that opens a dialog

box, you cannot disable the modal

control in the Actions panel

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A script is a series of commands that instructs Photoshop to perform a

set of specified actions These actions can be simple, affecting only a single object, or more complex, affecting many objects The actions can call not only Photoshop, but also invoke other applications such as Adobe Illustrator Scripts are useful for repetitive tasks and can be used as a creative tool to streamline tasks that are time consuming and boring For example, you could write a script to access images on your digital camera The script could process the images, and then create and save the documents in a folder that automatically includes the cur-rent date in the folder name, like Nikon 5700-12.12.2005 A scripting lan-guage lets you ask a question (an event), and use the answer to that question to perform any commands (an action) that are available in Photoshop To create your own scripts you need a working knowledge

of a scripting language like JavaScript, and either a script-editing appli-cation or a simple text editor, such as Notepad (Win), TextEdit (Mac) BBEdit or even Microsoft Word The languages you can use to perform scripting are varied and include Visual Basic, AppleScript, and JavaScript, to name a few As a matter of fact, the Scripts Events Manager lets you set JavaScript and Photoshop Actions to run auto-matically when a specified Photoshop event occurs

Using Enhanced

Scripting

Use Enhanced Scripting

Open a text editor, and then create

the script using any approved

scripting language

Save the document with the

correct extension, for example,

ActiveLayer.js for JavaScript

To access the script in Photoshop,

click the File menu, point to

Scripts, and then click Browse.

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Sample script created in JavaScript

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Click the Look In (Win) or From

(Mac) list arrow, and then select

your script file

Click the script that you want to

run

Click Open to run the script.

Your script appears in a browser

window

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See Also

For more information on Enhanced

Scripting, open the Photoshop

applica-tion folder, and then navigate to the

Scripting Guide folder for access to

several PDF tutorial files and sample

scripts

Using Built-in Scripts

You can save time by automating repeated tasks, such as outputting your layers to files or saving Layer Comps as separate pages of an Adobe PDF file, by using user-defined or Photoshop's own enhanced built-in scripts Click the File menu, point to Scripts, and then select from the available option presets For more information on how to write your own scripts, see the documentation available in your Adobe Photoshop CS5/Scripting Guide folder

For Your Information

When you apply an action to an image, you open the document in Photoshop, open the Actions panel, select the action, and then click the Play button While that process is easier than having to redo all the steps in a complicated action, there is a simpler way—create a droplet

Droplets apply Photoshop Actions to your images They appear as files

on your hard drive, or you can organize them within a specific folder

For example, you could create a droplet that performs a generic color correction operation To perform the operation on a Photoshop docu-ment, you would not even have to open Photoshop; simply drag the image file over the droplet and release—the droplet does the rest

Enhancing the

Process with

Droplets

Create a Droplet

Click the File menu, point to

Automate, and then click Create

Droplet.

IMPORTANT Droplets are

created from existing actions

Click Choose, and then select a

location to store the droplet

Click the Set list arrow, and then

select from the available sets

Click the Action list arrow, and

then select the action you want to

convert into a droplet

Select from the available Play

options (see table)

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Override Action Overrides the batch Open command and uses an

“Open” Commands embedded Open command in the Action The

Action MUST have an Open command as one of

Available Play Options

Click the Destination list arrow,

and then select from the following

options:

◆ None The file remains open

after the droplet ends

◆ Save And Close The file is

resaved (loss of original)

◆ Folder The file is saved in a

new folder (selected by user),

with the option of renaming the

file and extension

Select from the following File

Naming options:

◆ Document Name Use the

original name of the document,

or click to choose from various

naming schemes, including

incrementing the files by a

number (001, 002, etc)

◆ Extension Use the original

extension of the document, or

click to choose from extension

options such as using the date

or a sequenced serial number

◆ Starting Serial Number If you

select to use a serial number,

you can select a starting value

for the sequence

◆ Compatibility Select the check

boxes you want from Windows,

Mac OS, or Unix or any

combination of the three

To create an error log file, click the

Errors list arrow, and then click

Log Errors To File.

The error log records any

problems associated with applying

the droplet to the image file

To specify an error log file name

and location, click Save As.

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Droplet icon

Once you've created a droplet, it's a simple matter to use it to stream-line your workload For example, you've created a droplet that converts

an image into the grayscale color mode, and reduces the image resolu-tion to 72 ppi To convert an image file to those specificaresolu-tions, just drag the file and drop it on to the droplet Droplets are files that hold action instructions Once a droplet is created, you can store them anywhere that you can store a file It's not a bad idea to create file folders that hold specific types of droplets, such as color-correction droplets, or image-enhancement droplets To use a droplet, it's as easy as clicking

an image file, dragging, and then dropping it over the droplet

Using a Droplet

Use a Droplet

Open the folder that contains your

droplets

Open the folder that contains the

image file, or files you need to

convert

Drag an image file directly over

the droplet, and then release

Photoshop automatically opens

and applies the selected droplet

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Droplets

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2 Did You Know?

You can use droplets with more than

one file To use a droplet on more than

one image file, hold down the Shift key,

select all the image files to which you

want to apply the single droplet, and

then drag over the droplet Photoshop

applies the droplet to all selected files