Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Manual (Page 627)

620 Last updated 1/10/2010
Chapter 20: Automating tasks
Automating tasks can save you time and ensure consistent results for many types of operations. Photoshop provides a
variety of ways to automate tasks—using actions, droplets, the Batch command, scripting, templates, variables, and
data sets.
Automating with actions
About actions
An action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files—menu commands, panel options, tool
actions, and so on. For example, you can create an action that changes the size of an image, applies an effect to the
image, and then saves the file in the desired format.
Actions can include steps that let you perform tasks that cannot be recorded (for example, using a painting tool).
Actions can also include modal controls that let you enter values in a dialog box while playing an action.
In Photoshop, actions are the basis for droplets, which are small applications that automatically process all files that are
dragged onto their icon.
Photoshop and Illustrator come with predefined actions installed that help you perform common tasks. You can use
these actions as is, customize them to meet your needs, or create new actions. Actions are stored in sets to help you
organize them.
You can record, edit, customize, and batch-process actions, and you can manage groups of actions by working with
action sets.
Actions panel overview
You use the Actions panel (Window > Actions) to record, play, edit, and delete individual actions. This panel also lets
you save and load action files.
Photoshop Actions panel
A. Action set B. Action C. Recorded commands D. Included command E. Modal control (toggles on or off)
Expand and collapse sets, actions, and commands
❖ Click the triangle to the left of the set, action, or command in the Actions panel. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-
click (Mac
OS) the triangle to expand or collapse all actions in a set or all commands in an action.
A
D E
B
C