> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ MARCH 2020[ 58 ]
Step Three: Create a new action using either the flyout
menu in the Actions panel or by clicking on the Create New
Action icon at the bottom of the panel. Name it appropri-
ately, make sure the Set you just created is selected, and if
you want to assign a keyboard shortcut, choose a Function
Key (F-key) shortcut. Then click the Record button to start
recording (the record icon at the bottom of the panel will
turn red to indicate that you’re recording).to resize the files, enter the max dimension that you want
for the longest side; for example, entering 900 px for both
width and height would result in landscape-orientation
photos being 900-px wide and portrait-orientation photos
being 900-px high. There’s also an option to run an action
and add copyright information.ACTIONS
The concept of an action is simple: Record one or more
operations in Photoshop that you can then play anytime
you need those operations performed on an image—auto-
matically. Many people get “scared off” from using actions
because they assume an action is only meant for multi-step,
complicated operations. And while actions can perform
some pretty complex operations, they can also save you time
and effort in some pretty simple ways.
We saw one example earlier with the “starter actions.”
Think of something you do all the time in Photoshop that
takes more than one click. Wouldn’t it be nice to achieve
that end result with only one click? Here’s an example: hori-
zontally and vertically centering a layer in a document.
Say we have a simple document with one type layer, and
we want to center the type horizontally and vertically rela-
tive to the page. To do that manually, we’d have to click on
the Select menu and choose All, switch to the Move tool (V),
and then go to the Options Bar and click on the Align Verti-
cal Centers and Align Horizontal Centers icons: a total of five
clicks. Instead, let’s record this as an automated Action.Step One: Make sure you have a separate layer in a docu-
ment that contains some type of content and that the layer
is active. For this kind of action, it’s important to have the
layer already active before you start recording.Step Two: If the Actions panel isn’t visible, go to the Win-
dow menu and show the Actions panel. At the bottom
of the panel, click the folder icon to create a set that will
contain your actions. Give the set a name, and click OK.Every operation you do from now on will be recorded, but
it’s important to note that it’s not recording how long you
take to do things, so take your time and make sure you’re
only choosing menu items and clicking on tools that you
want recorded.Step Four: Press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to Select All.
Press V to activate the Move tool. In the Options Bar, click on
the Align Vertical Centers and Align Horizontal Centers icons.
Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to Deselect. To stop recording,
click on the small square to the left of the record button.
You should now have an Action that looks like this.In any document from now on, if you want to center
a layer, make sure the layer is active and then press the
F-key you associated with the action. If you didn’t assign
an F-key, click on the name of the action in the Actions
panel, and then click the Play Selection icon at the bottom
of the panel.
An important note about working with actions: Actions
record exactly what you tell them to, so if you click on
layer called Layer 1, then the Action will record “click on
the layer called Layer 1.” If you try to run this action on a
different document, it won’t work unless there’s a layer
called Layer 1. (That’s why, in Step One above, we made
sure the layer was active before we started recording.) If
you do need to select a layer, use these keyboard shortcuts
to activate a layer: Press Option-] (PC: Alt-]) to select the
next layer above in the stack and press Option-[ (PC: Alt-[ )
to select the next layer down in the stack.