Editing Photoshop Actions

[Scribe]

I am hoping that someone here can help me figure this out. I have some actions that someone else created, that I would like to alter a little to better suit my needs.

I know that on some steps I can just double click and it will open the appropriate dialog box, which allows me the opportunity to select the desired settings.

In some other cases, I can click on the right-hand of the two columns next to the step I want to change, and thus when I run the action and it gets to that step, it stops and allows me the chance to input the settings I want.

However, there are steps that are not changeable by either of the two methods above. In the actions I am trying to alter, in at least one case, the step for setting the foreground color cannot be changed in any way that I know.

Now, I vaguely seem to recall that there might be a way to read and change an action by using a text reader, like Notepad. However, when I manage to open an action in Notepad, I cannot make heads or tails of the information that shows up.

Can anyone please tell me if there is any way that I can edit any step I want to in an action? Or do I just have to accept that it is not do-able?

Thank you in advance to anyone who might have some words of wisdom

Scribe

[byRo]

Hi there, Scribe. Welcome to RetouchPRO.

You are quite right. Only some steps can be edited by double clicking.

The NotePad thing is unidirectional (big word!). You can list an action, but you cannot edit it in NotePad and return to the action.

The only way that I know to edit the "other" steps is to simply throw away the unwanted steps and record them again.

Another thing that I find irritating is that you can't even copy a step, a selection of steps or even an action. My workaround in these cases is to save the source action, move the step / action to a different place and then recover the source.

Rô

[byRo]

Originally Posted by byRo

Another thing that I find irritating is that you can't even copy a step, a selection of steps or even an action. My workaround in these cases is to save the source action, move the step / action to a different place and then recover the source.

Duh! Just found out the answer to my own question. Drag the step or action onto the new action button and you get a new copy.
Discovered by accident, I was aiming for the trash can - and missed !

Rô

[Scribe]

I was afraid someone was going to say it could not be done. Oh well, I will go back to the manual and figure out how to replace a step. The difficulty, I can see, comes when the original author of the action has compiled a number of steps as a unit. I think that is how it can be described. All I know is that there are several steps in a row, and that only the first one of that group has an arrow or check box next to it.

Thanks again, Rô.

Scribe

[v.bampton]

It's really quite simple to edit actions. I tend to work on a copy, in case I want to go back to the original. Record whichever new steps you want, and then you can drag and drop them into place.

I'd be interested to see your 'unit' - I've not heard of that before. Can you upload an example?

Thanks

Victoria