Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 - Manual (Page 510)

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Automating tasks
Last updated 6/5/2015
View actions by name only
❖ Choose Button Mode from the Actions panel menu. Choose Button Mode again to return to list mode.
Note: You can’t view individual commands or sets in Button mode.
Select actions in the Actions panel
❖ Click an action name. Shift-click action names to select multiple, contiguous actions, and Ctrl-click (Windows) or
Command-click (Mac OS) action names to select multiple, discontiguous actions.
Play an action on a file
Playing an action executes the action’s recorded commands in the active document. (Some actions require that you
make a selection before playing; some can be executed on an entire file.) You can exclude specific commands from an
action or play only a single command. If the action includes a modal control, you can specify values or use tools in a
dialog box when the action pauses.
Note: In Button mode, clicking a button executes the entire action—although commands previously excluded are not
executed.
1 If necessary, select objects on which to play the action, or open a file.
2 Do one of the following:
• (Illustrator) To play a set of actions, select the set name, and click the Play button in the Actions panel, or
choose Play from the panel menu.
• To play an entire single action, select the action name, and click the Play button in the Actions panel, or choose
Play from the panel menu.
• If you assigned a key combination to the action, press that combination to play the action automatically.
• To play only a part of an action, select the command from which you want to start playing, and click the Play
button in the Actions panel, or choose Play from the panel menu.
• To play a single command, select the command, and then Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the
Play button in the Actions panel. You can also press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and double-click
the command.
Tip: In Photoshop, to undo an action, take a snapshot in the History panel before you play an action, and then select
the snapshot to undo the action.
Record an action
When you create a new action, the commands and tools you use are added to the action until you stop recording.
Tip: To guard against mistakes, work in a copy: at the beginning of the action before applying other commands, record
the File > Save A Copy command (Illustrator) or record the File > Save As command and select As A Copy (Photoshop).
Alternatively, in Photoshop you can click the New Snapshot button on the History panel to make a snapshot of the image
before recording the action.
1 Open a file.
2 In the Actions panel, click the Create New Action button , or choose New Action from the Actions panel menu.
3 Enter an action name, select an action set, and set additional options:
Function Key Assigns a keyboard shortcut to the action. You can choose any combination of a function key, the Ctrl
key (Windows) or Command key (Mac OS), and the Shift key (for example, Ctrl+Shift+F3), with these exceptions:
In Windows, you cannot use the F1 key, nor can you use F4 or F6 with the Ctrl key.