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About actions and the Actions panel

Learn how to access various defaults actions available in Photoshop.

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About Actions

An action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files—menu commands, panel options, tool actions, and so on. For example, you can create an action that changes the size of an image, applies an effect to the image, and then saves the file in the desired format.

Actions can include steps that let you perform tasks that can't be recorded (for example, using a painting tool). Actions can also include modal controls that let you enter values in a dialog box while playing an action.

In Photoshop, actions are the basis for droplets, which are small applications that automatically process all files that are dragged onto their icon.

Photoshop and Illustrator come with predefined actions installed that helps you perform common tasks. You can use these actions as is, customize them to meet your needs, or create new actions. Actions are stored in sets to help you organize them.

You can record, edit, customize, and batch-process actions, and you can manage groups of actions by working with action sets.

Actions panel overview

You use the Actions panel (Window > Actions) to record, play, edit, and delete individual actions. This panel also lets you save and load action files.

Actions Panel
Photoshop Actions panel

Expand and collapse sets, actions, and commands

Click the triangle to the left of the set, action, or command in the Actions panel. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (macOS) the triangle to expand or collapse all actions in a set or all commands in an action.

View actions by name only

Choose Button Mode from the Actions panel menu. Choose Button Mode again to return to list mode.

Note:

You can’t view individual commands or sets in Button mode.

Select actions in the Actions panel

Click an action name. Shift-click action names to select multiple, contiguous actions, and Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (macOS) action names to select multiple, discontiguous actions.

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