How to Working with Actions in Photoshop

An action is a recorded sequence of events that takes place in Photoshop. Whenever you play an action, all the recorded events are reenacted in order. The idea here is to have to perform a repetitive task only once. If you record all the operations involved with  the task and save them as an action, Photoshop will repeat this task for you with just one simple click of a button. You can then run the action as many times (and on as many images) as you like, or you can apply it to a batch of images all at once.

Understanding Action Limitations
Although actions are great for automating repetitive production tasks, there are limitations involved with creating them. The first thing to keep in mind when recording actions is that the task you’re attempting to automate must be entirely methodical. For example, you can’t record an action that asks Photoshop to recognize any blemishes in a headshot photo and automatically spot heal them, nor can you ask it to select all the people in a photograph and extract them (but wouldn’t it be great if you could?).

To make the most out of actions in a print design/production workflow, it’s best to keep them as methodical as possible. Here are some examples of methodical actions that are easy to record and that work best when applied to images featured in a multipage print layout, such as a catalog or a brochure:
- Curves adjustments.
- Sharpening.
- Layer style effects, such as Drop Shadow or Outer Glow.
- RGB to CMYK conversions.
- Save As commands.

You should also know that there are several functions that Photoshop will simply not record, including zooming, scrolling, and applying brushstrokes. In addition, there are other operations that are recordable only when choosing the menu command, and not when applying the keyboard shortcut equivalent, or vice versa.

Using the Actions Palette
All actions are played and recorded by using the controls located at the bottom of the Actions palette. To display the palette, choose Window --> Actions. All actions, including those that are installed with Photoshop, as well as those you create, can be displayed in the Actions palette. In the Actions palette, actions are divided into sets that are displayed as labeled folders. The actions sets that are installed with Photoshop are named according to what they can do for you. Of all the actions sets that ship with  Photoshop, the Production set, Image Effects set, and Text Effects are the most useful to print designers and production artists. The first time you open the Actions palette, the Default set of actions is the only set displayed. You can load additional sets into the Actions palette by selecting them from the flyout palette menu list. Each new set that you load is displayed in the Actions palette until you delete it or until you choose the Reset Actions command from the Actions palette menu. To access the actions stored in a set, toggle the arrow next to the folder in the Actions palette. You can also access the recorded steps in each action by toggling the arrow next to its name.

Button Mode
Photoshop allows you to change the way actions are displayed in the Actions palette. You can switch from the default display of folders, titles, and steps to the much simpler color-coded Button mode. To do so, choose Button Mode from the Actions palette flyout menu. In this mode, Photoshop displays every action that is currently loaded into the palette as a button and hides all the controls that usually appear at the bottom of the palette. To run an action in Button mode, all you have to do is click the button. Although this clean palette display makes it much easier to locate actions, there is a disadvantage in that it doesn’t allow you to view any of the steps that make up each action. Working with actions in Button mode is also limiting in that you cannot create, edit, duplicate, or delete actions.