Photoshop: Actions

This tutorial will teach you how to record your actions, and recreate the entire process by simply pressing play.

Introducing Actions

Imagine you're trying out different effects or coloring techniques. You used many filters and tools, and it's hard to remember what you did. Maybe you want to apply the same effect to more images. Photoshop Actions are an easy way to solve this. They simply record what you do in Photoshop. If you have no clue where the Actions window is, just go Window - Actions and it'll appear.

Recording a New Action

To make a new set of Actions, click the small arrow to the right of the window or just use the little buttons at the bottom of the window. Make a new set, name it whatever you want and then choose to make a new action and start the recording. Now you do whatever you want to record. When you're done, just press the stop button and save your set.
When you want to use your effect again, just load the set, choose an action, and press play and it will do the chosen action for you.

Tips & Other Uses

• Actions can actually record other Actions if they're played while recording.
• To instantly undo an applied Action, create a snapshot by going to Window - History (New Snapshot). Make it your first step when recording and you can use the History Palette to instantly return to the original. This is useful for Actions with many steps.
• Holding Ctrl + Alt when saving your set will save your Action set as a text file. You can use the text file to review the contents of your Actions.
• Batch / Image Processing are valueable friends of the Actions. Used together, they speed up your workflow.