Application techniques of Action and batch processing in PS

1. To play only one step in one action, you can select the step and press CTRL to click the Play button and "Play Selected actions" under the "Action" floating panel. (Window > action)
Note: To change the parameters of a particular command step, just double-click the step to display the relevant dialog box: Any new values entered will be automatically recorded.

2. To return to playback from a specified step, just select the steps you want to start playing, and then click the "Play Selected action" button under the "Action" floating panel.

3. If you are recording an action that may be used for different canvas sizes, turn your ruler units into percentages. This ensures that all command and brush strokes can be recorded in the relevant canvas size-not based on specific pixel coordinates.

Tip: To quickly change the ruler units, just right-click the ruler [Ctrl+r] (View > Ruler), and then select the unit of measurement you need. You can also double-click the ruler to access the ruler's settings, or through the Edit > Preferences > Units and Rulers menu [Ctrl+k, ctrl+5].

4. When you record or edit an action, you can insert a menu command, just select "Insert menu item" in the "action" floating panel.

Tip: This is a good way to record a step category into an action, for example, menu commands can be passed through preset parameters without being logged.

5. Press "Ctrl+alt" and select "Save Action" in the "action" floating panel to save all actions as a text file. This is useful when you are reviewing or printing an action content.

Note: This text file cannot be loaded back into Photoshop.

6, about the action, it has a really powerful function is that it can play other actions, even in the fixed action settings. This feature is ideal for parts that contain repetitive commands that can be segmented into the "subroutine" of an action, because it makes the action easier to edit and maintain. When you record an action, select another action and click on the "Play" button, the playback command will be recorded as an action step into the current action.

7. Use the "File > Auto > Create Shortcut Batch" command to save an action as a quick batch. A quick batch is a small executable file that opens to automatically open Photoshop and applies the designed action to any image you drag onto it.

8. If you create subfolders in Photoshop's default actions folder to manage your actions, Photoshop can still find these actions and even make them available in the Actions floating panel.

Note: You can disable subfolders of actions, or individual actions, using a "~" symbol.

9. If you are not satisfied with the result after you run an action, you must undo all the steps in this action. You don't have to, just click "Create a new snapshot" in the history floating panel to create a snapshot before you run an action, so you can click the snapshot to restore the state of the image before the action is executed.

Tip: ImageReady the action as a single step in its history panel, so you can undo the action in one step.

10. Press the "ALT" key to drag the action steps in an "action" floating panel to copy it.

11. To include a path created in an action, create a path before you record the action, then select the path, start recording, and select Insert path in the Actions floating panel.

12, you can use the "Shift" key to select continuous action steps, using the "CTRL" key to the discontinuous action steps into the selection range. Then you can move, copy, delete, or even play the selected steps.

Note: You can only select multiple steps in one action.

Tips on batch Processing

13, to improve the performance of batch processing (File > Automatic > Batch), 3lian.com, you can open the Edit > Preferences > General, reduce the number of history status, and then in the history floating panel menu, find history options, Click to remove the "Create first snapshot automatically" option in the open window.

14. To handle multiple folders in a single batch, you need to check "include all subfolders" and create shortcuts to all folders in the source folder that you want to work with.

15, to batch multiple actions, you need to create a new action, and in this batch you want to deal with each action is recorded, and then use the most recently created action to run a batch.

Tip: You can also use this technique in the 14th one.