Adobe Photoshop CS6 Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks by Lynette Kent

CREATE A CUSTOM ACTION to increase your efficiency
Actions help you perform repeated steps quickly. An
action is a series of commands that you can apply to
an image with one click of the mouse. Unlike a
keyboard shortcut, which can only invoke a
command, an action can open a command, apply
changes to an image, step through another
command, apply it, and even save a file in a
particular way. Photoshop includes many predesigned
actions, and you can also create your own for steps
that you do over and over and add them to the
Actions panel.
Using the Actions panel, you record a sequence of
steps and save your new action. When you need to
apply the same steps to a different image, even to an
entire folder of files, you play the action, and
Photoshop automatically applies the steps. You can
record any number of steps and even create complex
actions that include steps requiring specific
information in dialog boxes. Actions become
particularly useful when you do repetitive projects
with many steps.
A
B
1
2
Note: The steps in this task create
a simple action for setting up a
new 7-×-5-inch document at 300
pixels/inch for a greeting card.
1 Click Window.
2 Click Actions.
A The Actions panel appears.
3 Click the Create New Action
button.
B Alternatively, you can click the
panel menu button and select
New Action.
3
The New Action dialog box
appears.
4 Type the name of your action.
C You can click the Function Key
drop-down menu and select a
function key for a keyboard
shortcut.
4
C
D
5
D You can click the Color dropdown
menu and select a color for
the action.
5 Click Record.
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