Actions to Recipes

PS
Posted By
Paul_Sissons
Apr 5, 2004
Views
308
Replies
5
Status
Closed
Hello, Can anyone help me?

I’m a Designer for a web news organisation with a question.

We have over a hundred journalists that use Photoshop 5 at a very basic level, croping, correcting, adding borders to images. As what they do is so basic and only utilising about 5% of what PhotoShop can do we are thinking about converting the journalists to Elements.
The Problem is we have a large ammount of ‘Actions’ which the journalists use to carry out tasks at speed such as ‘adding black border’ and ‘adding picture credits’. Is there anyway to add/create actions/recipes for Elements which can be easily used by amateur PC users?

Thanks.
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MR
Mark_Reibman
Apr 5, 2004
Paul,

Yes there is a way. Through the use of the Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements, see <http://www.hiddenelements.com> you can now use and write actions. I haven’t bothered to write any on my own (it’s not as easy as Photoshop, but doable) but people are doing it.

Also, check out this link and at the bottom of the page there are some instructions for writing actions using Lings interface for actions.

<http://www.geocities.com/rnlnero/PE2stuff2.html>

As far as I know,you do need a full version of Photoshop to write actions. I don’t know if version PS 5 writes actions. But Photoshop Elements is certainly capable of reading actions now with the add ons mentioned.
PS
Paul_Sissons
Apr 5, 2004
Thanks very much Mark, I’ll check those out.
RL
Richard_Lynch
Apr 7, 2004
You need version 6 pf Photoshop or better to write actions that are compatible with Elements. Search for a demo on Jumbo.com or other shareware sites.

Elements does not write actions with either add-on. These add-ons were made to help you play existing actions and (in the case of Hidden Power, anyway) to encourage those already writing actions for distribution to Photoshop users to make those available for Elements users as well.

Paul S., It is very possible/likely that these actions you need could be converted–if they need to be modified to work with Elements.
PS
Paul_Sissons
Apr 7, 2004
Thanks, I’ve been creating the actions in PS 7 on my Mac now after hours of getting angry and not realising why they wouldn’t run.

I’ve managed to run and convert a few basic actions using the SnapActions Interface which is good news, but I’ve found more complicated actions which are ‘non-elenments friendly’ break, eg. The command "color range" isn’t currently available. Therefore I’m having to go back to PS7 and find work arounds to simplify them.
I’ve had experience of this kind of problem after I foolishy created a set of actions in PS7 on Mac and distibuted them to PS5.5 PC users. Test test and test again….

There’s one thing which still anoys me though, the set of actions is always hidden in the Recipes drop down, does anyone know a way to move a set of customised actions out of the ‘Select a recipe’ option and place it along side the other Elements recipes in that drop down? I’d like to do this so the amateur users of Elements can find my set with ease and can access them quickly.
MR
Mark_Reibman
Apr 7, 2004
does anyone know a way to move a set of customised actions out of the ‘Select a recipe’ option and place it along side the other Elements recipes in that drop down? I’d like to do this so the amateur users of Elements can find my set with ease and can access them quickly.

None that I’m aware of. Accessiblity is an issue, but considering PSE didn’t play actions before Richard Lynch made it available it’s a small inconvenience measured against the cost of the full Photoshop.

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