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 palettes.
In ImageReady, you can drag a command from the History palette to the action in the Actions palette in which you want the command recorded. You cannot drag italicized commands from the History palette to the Actions palette. (Commands in italics are nonactionable.)
• Results depend on file and program setting variables, such as the active layer or 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 recording actions that include dialog box and palette settings, keep in mind that only changed settings are recorded. For example, to record an action that sets a particular preference to its current value, you must first change that preference to some other value, and then record the action as you change the preference back to its original value.
• 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 the transformation and crop commands. Tools that record position include the marquee, slice, gradient, magic wand, lasso, shape, path, eyedropper, and notes tools.
In Photoshop, when recording an action that will be played on files of different sizes, set the ruler units to percent. 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 palette menu to cause one action to play another.

Read More

Creating a droplet from an action

Actions are the basis for creating droplets--you must create the desired action in the Actions palette prior to creating a droplet. (See Recording actions.)
In ImageReady, you can also create droplets with the Optimize palette, so that you can apply Optimize palette settings to single images or batches of images.

To create a droplet from an action (Photoshop):

1. Choose File > Automate > Create Droplet.
2. Click Choose in the Save Droplet In section of the dialog box, and select a location to save the droplet.
3. Select the desired set and action from the Set and Action menus.
4. Set Play options for the droplet:
• Select Override Action "Open" Commands if you want Open commands in the action to refer to the batched files, rather than the filenames specified in the action. Deselect Override Action "Open" Commands if the action was recorded to operate on open files or if the action contains Open commands for specific files that are required by the action.
• Select Include All Subfolders to process files in subdirectories.
• Select Suppress Color Profile Warnings to turn off display of color policy messages.
5. Select a destination for the processed files from the Destination menu:
• None to leave the files open without saving changes (unless the action included a Save command).
• Save and Close to save the files in their current location.
• Folder to save the processed files to another location. Click Choose to specify the destination folder. Select Override Action "Save As" Commands if you want Save As commands in the action to refer to the batched files, rather than the filenames and locations specified in the action. Deselect Override Action "Save As" Commands if the action contains Save As commands for specific files that are required by the action.
6. If you chose Folder as the destination, specify a file-naming convention and select file compatibility options for the processed files:
• For File Naming, select elements from the pop-up menus or enter text into the fields to be combined into the default names for all files. Elements include document name, serial number or letter, file creation date, and file extension.
• For File Name Compatibility, choose Windows, Mac OS, and UNIX to make filenames compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and UNIX operating systems.
7. Select an option for error processing from the Errors pop-up menu:
• Stop for Errors to suspend the process until you confirm the error message.
• Log Errors to File to record each error in a file without stopping the process. If errors are logged to a file, a message appears after processing. To review the error file, click Save As and name the error file.

To create a droplet from an action (ImageReady):

1. For best results, make sure that the action contains at least one Set Optimization command. To add a Set Optimization command, adjust the settings in the Optimize palette, and then drag the droplet icon from the Optimize palette onto the part of the Actions palette where you want to add that command.
If you do not add a Set Optimization command to the droplet, ImageReady will process files using the optimization settings in place at the time the droplet was created.
2. Create the droplet:
• Drag the name of the action from the Actions palette onto the desktop. The droplet has the same name as the action it was created from. You can rename the droplet as you do other desktop icons.
• Select an action, and choose Create Droplet from the Actions palette menu. Name the droplet, choose a location where the droplet will be saved, and click Save.

Read More

Using the Batch command (Photoshop)

The Batch command lets you play an action on a folder of files and subfolders. If you have a digital camera or a scanner with a document feeder, you can also import and process multiple images with a single action. Your scanner or digital camera may need an acquire plug-in module that supports actions. (If the third-party plug-in wasn't written to import multiple documents at a time, it may not work during batch-processing or if used as part of an action. Contact the plug-in's manufacturer for further information.)
When batch-processing files, you can leave all the files open, close and save the changes to the original files, or save modified versions of the files to a new location (leaving the originals unchanged). If you are saving the processed files to a new location, you may want to create a new folder for the processed files before starting the batch.
For better batch performance, reduce the number of saved history states and deselect the Automatically Create First Snapshot option in the History palette.

To batch-process files using the Batch command:

1. Choose File > Automate > Batch.
2. For Play, choose the desired set and action from the Set and Action pop-up menus.
3. For Source, choose a source from the pop-up menu:
• Folder to play the action on files already stored on your computer. Click Choose to locate and select the folder.
• Import to import and play the action on images from a digital camera or scanner.
• Opened Files to play the action on all open files.
• File Browser to play the action on the selected files in the File Browser.
4. Select Override Action "Open" Commands if you want Open commands in the action to refer to the batched files, rather than the filenames specified in the action. If you select this option, the action must contain an Open command because the Batch command will not automatically open the source files.
Deselect Override Action "Open" Commands if the action was recorded to operate on open files or if the action contains Open commands for specific files that are required by the action.
5. Select Include All Subfolders to process files in subfolders.
6. Select Suppress Color Profile Warnings to turn off display of color policy messages.
7. Choose a destination for the processed files from the Destination menu:
• None to leave the files open without saving changes (unless the action includes a Save command).
• Save and Close to save the files in their current location, overwriting the original files.
• Folder to save the processed files to another location. Click Choose to specify the destination folder.
8. Select Override Action "Save As" Commands if you want Save As commands in the action to refer to the batched files, rather than the filenames and locations specified in the action. If you select this option, the action must contain a a Save As command because the Batch command will not automatically save the source files.
Deselect Override Action "Save As" Commands if the action contains Save As commands for specific files that are required by the action.
9. If you chose Folder as the destination, specify a file-naming convention and select file compatibility options for the processed files:
• For File Naming, select elements from the pop-up menus or enter text into the fields to be combined into the default names for all files. The fields let you change the order and formatting of the filename parts. You must include at least one field that is unique for every file (for example, filename, serial number, or serial letter) to prevent files from overwriting each other.
• For File Name Compatibility, choose Windows, Mac OS, and UNIX to make filenames compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and UNIX operating systems.
Saving files using the Batch command options always saves the files in the same format as the original files. To create a batch process that saves files in a new format, record the Save As command followed by the Close command as part of your original action. Then choose Override Action "Save In" Commands for the Destination when setting up the batch process.
10. Select an option for error processing from the Errors pop-up menu:
• Stop for Errors to suspend the process until you confirm the error message.
• Log Errors to File to record each error in a file without stopping the process. If errors are logged to a file, a message appears after processing. To review the error file, click Save As and name the error file.
To batch-process using multiple actions, create a new action and record the Batch command for each action you want to use. This technique also lets you process multiple folders in a single batch. To batch-process multiple folders, create aliases within a folder to the other folders you want to process, and select the Include All Subfolders option.

Read More