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.
- 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 boxes and palettes, the settings recorded will be the ones that are presently in the dialog box and palette at the time of the recording. If you change a setting in a dialog box or palette while recording an action, the resulting value will be the one recorded.
- 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.
- You can record the Play command listed on the Actions palette menu to cause one action to play another.
- 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. Commands in italics are not recordable in an action. You cannot drag italicized commands from the History palette to the Actions palette.
- Photoshop and ImageReady cannot share actions.
Keep in mind the following guidelines when recording actions:
Note: Most dialog boxes retain the values of their previous settings; when they next appear they may already have values. Be sure to check carefully to see if the values are the ones you want to record.
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.
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