Introduction to the use of PhotoShop CS4 action Panel

One, what is action

Actions are used to record the steps of Photoshop to facilitate playback again to improve productivity and standardize operational processes. This feature supports the process of recording actions against a single file or a batch of files. Users can not only take some of the "mechanized" operations often recorded into action to improve efficiency, but also can be a number of creative processes recorded and provided to share.

Second, how to pull up the action panel

Perform menu window > Actions to bring up the actions panel, or press the shortcut key ALT+F9 to pull up the panel.

Iii. composition of the action panel

The action panel has the same structure as the normal panel, and the concrete appearance is shown in Figure 1.

Action Group: A similar folder used to organize one or more actions.

Action: Generally will be easier to remember the name, click on the small triangle to the left of the name to expand the action.

Action Step: Each individual action step in the action, the corresponding parameter details will appear after the expansion.

check mark: A black pair tick indicates that the group, action, or step is available. The red pair indicates that it is not available.

Animation mode control icon: If it is black, then a pause is included in each dialog box that starts or one of the steps chosen to press ENTER. In the case of red, there is at least one step that pauses waiting for input.

Panel Options Menu: contains multiple menu items related to the action, providing richer settings.

Stop: Stop recording or playing after clicking.

Record: Click to start recording, the red SAG status indicates that the record is in progress.

Play: Click to run the selected action.

Create a new group: Click to create a new group that organizes individual or multiple actions.

Create a new action: Click to create a new action name, shortcut keys, and so on, and also has the recording function.

Delete: Deletes one or more actions or groups.

In addition, if you choose button mode from the palette's Options menu, you can display each action as a button state so that you can list more actions in a limited space, in a simple and straightforward manner, as shown in Figure 2. The same menu location cancels the feature.

Figure 2: Button mode

Iv. How to perform the action

Select the picture you want to process (part of the action without pictures, part of the action on the picture size requirements), expand an Action group, select an action, click the Play button, you can perform an action, as shown in Figure 3. For example, the "four-point color" in the default action group is executed, as shown in Figure 4. In case of special steps, some actions will be prompted to tell you the required parameters or precautions

Figure 3: Play action

Figure 4: four-color effect

Five, load more action

Photoshop itself has more than one set of actions, and each action set contains multiple actions of the same type. These can be added to commands, picture frames, image effects, production, text effects, textures, and video actions. Users can append these action sets to the palette's Options menu, as shown in Figure 5

Figure 5: Load More action categories:

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