ptg 372 Chapter 15 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. 4 3 2 1 2 3 New set 4 1 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 15 Automating Your Work with Actions 373 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. 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 3 2 4 6 5 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. From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 374 Chapter 15 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 acti on , d ra g t he action from one set to another. ◆ To copy an acti on , h ol d d ow n 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. 4 3 2 1 1 3 Action copied into another set 2 4 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 15 Automating Your Work with Actions 375 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. 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 6 2 4 3 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 376 Chapter 15 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 acces s the sc ri pt in Ph ot os hop, click the File menu, point to Scripts, and then click Browse. 3 2 1 Sample script created in JavaScript 1 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 15 Automating Your Work with Actions 377 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. 6 5 4 5 4 6 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 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 378 Chapter 15 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). 5 4 3 2 1 5 3 4 2 Option Purpose 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 the steps. Include All Opens any subfolders within the selected folder Subfolders and performs the action on any files found within. Suppress File Open Does not show any File Open dialog boxes. Options Dialogs Suppress Color When a color profile mismatch occurs, does not Profile Warnings display a warning dialog box, but just continues. Available Play Options From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 15 Automating Your Work with Actions 379 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 creat e an err or lo g fil e, cl ic k 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 speci fy an er ro r log fi le na me and location, click Save As. Click OK. 10 9 8 7 6 10 6 7 8 9 Droplet icon From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 380 Chapter 15 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 specifications, 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. 3 2 1 1 Droplets 3 2 Did You Know? You can use droplets with more than one file. To us e a drople t on mo re th an 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. From the Library of Wow! eBook . your Adobe Photoshop CS5/ Scripting Guide folder. For Your Information From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 378 Chapter 15 When you apply an action to an image, you open the document in Photoshop, . 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, . 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