Creating and recording actions

Topics in this article:

Keep in mind the following guidelines when 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 panels.

• Results depend on file and program setting variables, such as the active layer and 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 you record actions that include specifying settings in dialog boxes and panels, the action will reflect the settings in effect at the time of the recording. If you change a setting in a dialog box or panel while recording an action, the changed value is 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 transforming or cropping. 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 panel menu to cause one action to play another.

Steps to record an action

When you create a new action, the commands and tools you use are added to the action until you stop recording.

Record tools in actions

Photoshop lets you record tools such as the brush tool in your action. To enable this feature, choose Allow Tool Recording from the Actions panel menu.

A couple of items to keep in mind:

• When recording a tool, choose your brush as part of the action or Photoshop uses the currently selected brush.
• If you are recording the action to play back at a different size, set Photoshop's measurement units to percentage and don’t define the brush size as part of a brush preset.

From an expert: Tool recording

Howard Pinsky

Record a path

The Insert Path command lets you include a complex path (a path created with a pen tool or pasted from Adobe Illustrator) as part of an action. When the action is played back, the work path is set to the recorded path. You can insert a path when recording an action or after it has been recorded.

If you record multiple Insert Path commands in a single action, each path replaces the previous one in the target file. To add multiple paths, record a Save Path command using the Paths panel after recording each Insert Path command.

Insert a stop

You can include stops in an action that let you perform a task that cannot be recorded (for example, using a painting tool). After you complete the task, click the Play button in the Actions panel to complete the action.

You can also display a short message when the action reaches the stop as a reminder of what needs to be done before continuing with the action. You can include a Continue button in the message box in case no other task needs to be done.

Change settings when playing an action

By default, actions are completed using the values specified when they were originally recorded. If you want to change the settings for a command within an action, you can insert a modal control. A modal control pauses an action so that you can specify values in a dialog box or use a modal tool. (A modal tool requires pressing Enter or Return to apply its effect—once you press Enter or Return, the action resumes its tasks.)

A modal control is indicated by a dialog box icon  to the left of a command, action, or set in the Actions panel. A red dialog box icon  indicates an action or set in which some, but not all, commands are modal. You can’t set a modal control in Button mode.

Exclude commands from an action

You can exclude commands that you don’t want to play as part of a recorded action. You can’t exclude commands in Button mode.

Insert a non-recordable menu command

You can insert many non-recordable commands into an action using the Insert Menu Item command.

You can insert a command when recording an action, or after it has been recorded. An inserted command doesn’t execute until the action is played, so the file remains unchanged when the command is inserted. No values for the command are recorded in the action. If the command opens a dialog box, the dialog box appears during playback, and the action pauses until you click OK or Cancel.

Edit and re-record actions

You can tweak the settings of any specific command within an action, add commands to an existing action, or step through an entire action and change any or all settings.

Overwrite a single command

Add commands to an action

Rearrange commands within an action

Record an action again