Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Manual (Page 631)

624 USING PHOTOSHOP CS4
Automating tasks
Last updated 1/10/2010
Important: The Replace Actions command replaces all sets of actions in the current document. Before using the
command, make sure that you have already saved a copy of your current set of actions using the Save Actions
command.
Creating actions
Recording actions
Keep in mind the following guidelines when recording actions:
• You can record most—but not all—commands in an action.
• You can record operations that you perform with the Marquee, Move, Polygon, Lasso, Magic Wand, Crop, Slice,
Magic Eraser, Gradient, Paint Bucket, Type, Shape, Notes, Eyedropper, and Color Sampler tools—as well as those
that you perform in the History, Swatches, Color, Paths, Channels, Layers, Styles, and Actions panels.
• Results depend on file and program setting variables, such as the active layer and the foreground color. For
example, a 3-pixel Gaussian blur won’t create the same effect on a 72-ppi file as on a 144-ppi file. Nor will Color
Balance work on a grayscale file.
• When you record actions that include specifying settings in dialog boxes and panels, the action will reflect the
settings in effect at the time of the recording. If you change a setting in a dialog box or panel while recording an
action, the changed value is recorded.
Note: Most dialog boxes retain the settings specified at the previous use. Check carefully that those are the values you
want to record.
• Modal operations and tools—as well as tools that record position—use the units currently specified for the ruler. A
modal operation or tool is one that requires you to press Enter or Return to apply its effect, such as transforming
or cropping. Tools that record position include the Marquee, Slice, Gradient, Magic Wand, Lasso, Shape, Path,
Eyedropper, and Notes tools.
If you record an action that will be played on files of different sizes, set the ruler units to percentages. As a result,
the action will always play back in the same relative position in the image.
• You can record the Play command listed on the Actions panel menu to cause one action to play another.
Recording actions works similarly in Photoshop and Illustrator.
Record an action
When you create a new action, the commands and tools you use are added to the action until you stop recording.
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.