I know very little about actions. I had a question about why a particular action wouldn't work, and I e-mailed the author to see if he had any advice. Here is his reply to me:

"Are these other actions Photoshop actions or the ones that are built into your Dell system?"

How do I know if my other actions are built into the system, or if they're Photoshop actions?

Ed

Why would Dell build actions into thier system for Photoshop? I know Photoshop has standard actions that come with the software but Dell has nothing to do with that. Something doesn't sound right. Even if a Imaging package is in the software bundle that comes with Dell, they still wouldn't provide actions for it would they? Am I missing out on a bunch of actions that Dell has incorporated into the system? Unless he is refering to actions used in other applications, not Photoshop types. Strange reply either way. What action doesn't work for you?
DJ

That kind of threw me for a loop too. I bought the book "Photoshop 7 Artistry", and there is an action for making special hotkeys. I have already learned several of Photoshop's hotkeys, and I'm not sure it would be easy to "forget" them now. But I thought I would at least try using his actions.

The book seems to be an excellent book, but I haven't really been into it very far except for a quick skim to see what it has to offer.

Ed

I have the "Photoshop 6 Artistry" book and loaded the hotkey actions without any problems. I think the preloaded "Dell" actions that the author was referring to are designations for the function keys as hotkeys perhaps already predetermined by Dell and not actual PhotoShop actions. Any way, I just went to the action palette and chose load actions and loaded the book's hotkey action file. So far so good.

As for the book, mine has a lot of typos and wrong photos, which is annoying. I think they must have rushed this edition to the press without editing it. I bought the book, because I wanted some hands-on training and the book offers several lessons which I am looking forward to. Of course they don't start until Chapter 18 and I am only on chapter 8.

-T

Ed:

When you got your Dell machine, was Photoshop pre-installed on it or did you install it the old fashioned way, via Adobe CD(s)?

If the former it's possible the Dell-provided Photoshop may have had some custom Dell-provided actions preinstalled, hence the action author's question.

Though I'm a Photoshop 5.5 person, I've read that on occasion that some actions written under PS6 don't work under PS7. Don't know the particulars, though.

~Danny~

Thanks for all the replies. I already had the computer when I bought the upgrade to Photoshop 7. I guess that's probably the information I need to give him. Thanks again.

Ed

OK... Now that we're past the last one :), here's another couple ways actions that work sometimes won't for you.

Sometimes action writers make ass-u-me-tions, e.g., that the image against which an action is being executed in is RGB mode.

If your image is in, say, Grayscale mode and the action attempts to run a filter that is only available in RGB or CYMK, the action will fail.

Another common gotcha is authors assume you have a layer named Background. If you don't have a BG layer and an action tries to "do something" with a background layer, e.g., duplicate it, delete it, whatever, the action will fail.

HTHs a little more.

~Danny~

I just deleted a post I made because it was in error. :( So if you already read it, please disregard it. Sorry for any confusion I might have caused.

Ed