Hi Jon:
Although I don’t have CS (still have PS7), the symptoms you describe are the same in PS7.
In PS7 if you engage an action that includes a SWF command through File > Automate > Batch, the file names assigned to destination images are the same as their respective source image file names REGARDLESS of any custom file name settings you specify in the Automate > Batch dialog. In other words PS ignores the custom file name specs under these circumstances. So I don’t believe you’re doing anything wrong, per se. To my knowledge it’s just how it works (under PS7 anyway).
Here’s how I got around a similar problem using three actions (action 3 plays actions 1 and 2).
Action 1: "Save for the web"
* Your SFW action as is. Be sure you don’t have Open or Close commands in the action.
Action 2: "Rename"
* Create a new action. Name it "Rename" and click the Record button in the new action dialog.
* Click STOP (recording). Result: An action w/no steps. That’s OK.
Prep for action 3.
* Create a source folder with 2-3 test images you want to process. * Make sure the folder specified in the SFW command is empty. This prevents problems with duplicate image names.
* Create a new folder for your renamed images, e.g., \Renamed
Action 3: "SFW + Rename"
* Name action and click "Record" button
* 1st step: File > Automate > Batch
* Specify action 1: "Save for the Web"
* Source: Folder; Choose: wherever it lives
* Destination: None. Makes no difference since folder specified in recorded SWF command takes precedence no matter what.
* Click OK. File > Automate > Batch processes your 2-3 images
* 2nd step: File > Automate > Batch
* Specify action 2: "Rename"
* Source: Folder; Choose: the one specified in SFW dialog * Destination: Folder; Choose: \Renamed
* File name: Choose from the 6 file name options
* OK (File > Automate > Batch invokes (do nothing) action 2, Rename. Images are placed in the destination folder and named according to what you specified.
* STOP (recording)
When action 3 plays, it will invoke actions 1 & 2 via the File > Automate > Batch dialogs.
Options in Action 3:
* Click on the "Display Dialog" checkbox for each of the Batch steps if you want to be able to specify different source and/or destination folders for each run.
* Insert a STOP command as the first step in the action. Purpose: To display a reminder to clear out the folder where the SFW action places the SFW images and Rename action places the renamed images. If you don’t clean out these folders before each run of action 3, you could have problems with duplicate image names from leftover images.
Not pretty or elegant, but it works.
HTH…
~Danny~
Know what I’d do? I’d just let them have the default names, send them to a temp folder in the action, then open that folder with file browser, right click and batch rename with PSCS file browser. That’s almost as good as having in the SFW action itself, and it’s really quick.
Peace,
Tony
