i've followed an online tutorial about how to get an action onto the effects palette. everything seems to go smoothly, but when i click on the urban acid icon i created, i get a message that says "could not complete your request b/c file not found"

i've redownloaded the action, reemptied the cache and restarted elements. nothing helps. the action (urban acid.atn) and the preview (urban acid.psd) are in a folder (urban acid) in the effects folder in the previews in Photoshop.

any help to a novice would be appreciated.

I don't have Elements, so I can only speculate based on my Photoshop action scars.

Some actions contain commands that specify files, e.g., a texture effect or Levels adjustment layer custom setting. If you don't have "that file" on your computer in the same location as recorded in the action, then a message similar to the one you reported would be displayed.

If this is the case you can take a little consolation in that the same error would most likely occur to a Photoshop user.

So, what to do?

If you .zip the .atn file and upload/attach it, I'll download it and take a look in Photoshop. I might be able to hack it so it's Elements' friendly.

i appreciate your interest in helping me. i already loaded the action into Photoshop CS2 on my PC laptop, but the directions for this are elements on a Mac are completely different.

thank you...

I misunderstood... Since you reported having CS2, I assumed you could diagnose your own problem.

It does not matter that you are running Elements on a Mac. Actions (in general) will work on either platform.

The reason this action will not run under Elements is Elements does not support the Curves command.

In Photoshop you could try to achieve a similar effect by replacing the Curves step in the action with some combination of Levels and Hue/Saturation adjustment layers (set to "colorize") and layer blend mode settings. This will take a little experimenting on your part to come up with the right combination, but that is half the fun! :)

Once you get the new action working in Photoshop on the laptop, save it as an .atn file and install the .atn on the Mac as you normally would.

Is this enough information?

sorry i took so long to reply. i'll definitely give this a try. thanks for your help.