Introducing Preset Actions in Photoshop

Photoshop’s preset actions are located in a series of files in the Actions folder. The default actions are loaded by, um, default, when you first open Photoshop. However, other preset actions are available for you to open and use. They include Frames (for putting frames around your images), Text Effects (for enhancing your text), and Textures, for adding textures to your selections.

Preset action options
Here are some other tidbits about using preset actions :
-->If you saved actions of your own (as described later in this chapter) somewhere other than the Photoshop Actions folder, you can navigate to that folder by using the usual file navigation commands.

-->To remove the existing actions and replace them with the set you are loading, choose Replace Actions from the palette pop-up menu.

-->To reset the Actions palette to the Default Actions set (removing all other sets you may have loaded), choose Reset Actions from the palette pop-up menu.

-->To clear all actions from the Actions palette, choose Clear Actions from the palette pop-up menu. (You might want to do this when creating your own set of actions from scratch.)

-->To rename an action set, select it and choose Set Options from the palette pop-up menu.

Loading preset actions
Follow these steps to load preset actions.

1. In the Actions palette, click the palette pop-up menu arrow and choose Load Actions.
Photoshop opens the Photoshop Actions folder in the Load dialog box. This folder contains several sets of actions presets.

2. Select one of the actions sets.

3. Click the Load button.

Photoshop’s additional actions presets also appear at the bottom of the Actions palette pop-up menu. You can add any of them to your current set by clicking the set’s name. Any action sets that you create yourself (as described later in this chapter) also appear in the pop-up menu if you save them in the Photoshop Actions folder.

The new actions presets appear in the Actions palette, appended after the default actions that are already there. You can show or hide the actions in the Default Actions or Image Effects sets by clicking the expand/collapse arrow in the third column.

You can also make actions available or unavailable for an entire set by clicking the first column in the Actions palette next to the action set’s folder icon.