i suck at PS actions

ack...i had written a simple action to launch from Bridge (ie, on .CR2 files) that did the following:

1 - opened in PS
2 - resized to 1200 px
3 - converted color space to sRGB
4 - ran a Nik sharpen action
5 - saved as jpg


seems pretty simple, right? well my old PC died and took my actions with it (unless someone can tell me how to find these buggers on the hard drive that i salvaged), and i can't for the life of me figure out how to re-create it...the override options for 'save as' or 'open' are driving me insane.

any help is appreciated!

The easier way is to write an action that just runs Nik sharpen then run it through image processor, letting PS do the resize, open, close, save, etc. To write the action:
- Open an image
- Create an action
- Run Nik Sharpen
- Hit stop.
- Close the image

Even better, just use the ACR sharpening, or don't bother. I don't really sharpen image much, only final prints that go into customers albums. If you do that then you just open the image in Bridge, hit select all, then hit save.

So, the first question would be, did you Save the Action when you created it? I believe you have to first create an action set and put your action in it and then specifically Save the Action from the dropdown list in the Action Palette. If you did save it it should show up in your Actions folder.

Do you know where your Actions folder is? If you click on the little "menu" icon in your Actions Palette toolbar, the dropdown list opens and choose to Load Action... your Actions folder should pop up -- see if there is anything in it.

tonylong wrote in post #14159026
I believe you have to first create an action set and put your action in it and then specifically Save the Action from the dropdown list in the Action Palette.

Correct. Created Actions are stored somewhere in PS unless saved. You can't save an action, you need to save the set that it is created in.

It may or may not be in that folder, it depends on where you save them. I save mine on a separate drive. Easy to find - just do a search for files with the atn extension.

Yeah, Narlus, try searching for .atn files.

Unfortunately, I'd suspect that the original action wasn't saved...Narlus, when you recovered your hard drive did you have to re-install Photoshop? If so, I'm wondering if there is a way of recovering Actions that have not been saved -- I don't kow.

sorry for the lapse...i did have to re-install PS, but on a different drive (SSD)...i have tried to search for .atn files on the old HD but no dice.

one of the problems i have is the whole 'open' and 'save as' and 'override' options...they never make sense to me. i'll muddle through it.

tim, i do find that sharpening helps for web displays.

The overrides just substitute the current files filename in, instead of always opening and saving the image you used when you wrote the action.

narlus wrote in post #14210961
sorry for the lapse...i did have to re-install PS, but on a different drive (SSD)...i have tried to search for .atn files on the old HD but no dice.

one of the problems i have is the whole 'open' and 'save as' and 'override' options...they never make sense to me. i'll muddle through it.

tim, i do find that sharpening helps for web displays.

Well, sorry for your loss!

One thing that you do have to plan for with your Actions regarding the Save/Save As/Override stuff is that there are different ways actions are used, and the use determines how to handle how the action wraps things up.

You can have an action that is designed to run and then stop so you can do some "finalizing" and then save and close, of course.

And then you can have an action that runs and then has an automatic Save and Close, handy for running batches.

And then, there is the Image processor, called either through Bridge or through the Phososhop editor. The Image Processor is quite handy for batches of files, and it has its own routine to resize and Save files, and can call PS actions as part of the processing, but of course, those actions need to be designed for this, without a Save/Close or a resizing function, things that you would want to have in a Batch processing action!

And then there is a cool thing called a "droplet", an action that "does it all" so is kind of like a batch processing action that can be "called" by either an external app (like Lightroom) or simply by dragging and dropping a file onto a droplet icon on your desktop.

So, each approach can differ. And, it's useful to bear the different uses in mine and prepare a "version" of an action for the different uses you want to use!

Hey, it's not complicated once you "get down" to the practicalities, and it can be a lot of fun!

narlus wrote in post #14158817
ack...i had written a simple action to launch from Bridge (ie, on .CR2 files) that did the following:

1 - opened in PS
2 - resized to 1200 px
3 - converted color space to sRGB
4 - ran a Nik sharpen action
5 - saved as jpg


seems pretty simple, right? well my old PC died and took my actions with it (unless someone can tell me how to find these buggers on the hard drive that i salvaged), and i can't for the life of me figure out how to re-create it...the override options for 'save as' or 'open' are driving me insane.

any help is appreciated!

Get a hard drive caddy, though you will have to confirm that the hard drive wasn't the cause of the pc failure. Easiest way of doing that is taking out the hard drive(s) and see if the pc boots up.

Assuming it isn't the hard drive that you have your actions on, then one of these http://www.amazon.co.u​k …-Cost-Black/dp/B000I2JU6A should help, just make sure it is the right one for your hard drive

C:\Users\username\AppD​ata\Roaming\Adobe\Adob​e Photoshop CS5\Adobe Photoshop CS5 Settings

And copy and paste "Actions Palette.psp" see if that restores your previous actions palette