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bsnyder175
bsnyder175
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Any way to edit actions in a text/script editor?

Aug 9, 2010 12:48 PM

I need to duplicate a very long action about 5 times and make file-name saving changes to each step, but going through the resaving process 75 times is a pain in the ***.  It's a simple action that shows, saves, and hides 75 different layers individually.  But the naming of these saved files will be different depeing on the photoshop file I'm using (about 5 different variances).  Batch Processing just takes too long to do what my action will do in 10 seconds, so it seems like I'm stuck with using actions.  My question is:

 

Is there a way to edit actions through a text/script editor vs using Photoshop?  I could copy/paste/replace text much quicker than going through the actual saving process 375 times.

9069 Views   7 Replies   Latest reply: Infinity_Spiral, Mar 21, 2013 12:03 PM
 
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  • Domnita Petri
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    1. Domnita Petri,
    Aug 9, 2010 1:01 PM   in reply to bsnyder175
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    Ctrl + Alt (Cmd + Opt on Mac) while click on Save Actions from the Actions panel flyout will give you a txt file. The problem is that I do not know about a way to re-convert this into an atn.

     
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  • xbytor2
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    2. xbytor2,
    Aug 9, 2010 1:03 PM   in reply to bsnyder175
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    This will convert an action file to XML:

    http://ps-scripts.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ps-scripts/xtools/apps/Ac tionFileToXML.jsx

     

    You can edit this file with a normal text editor.

     

    This will convert an XML file to an action file:

    http://ps-scripts.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ps-scripts/xtools/apps/Ac tionFileFromXML.jsx

     

    There are a few cases where this does not work. But they are not very common.

     
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  • bsnyder175
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    3. bsnyder175,
    Aug 9, 2010 1:19 PM   in reply to Domnita Petri
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    I tried the command+opt solution first, which spit out a text file containing every every action (rather than the set I had selected) and that was fine.  I made the changes, but when I tried loading that text file back into Photoshop's Actions pallet, it was unrecognizable as an action.  Just to confirm that it wasn't any faulty scripting, I saved out another copy of my actions and immediately tried to reload them back with that text file (I made no modifications) and again, the text file was unrecognizable.  How do I load the text version back into the Actions Pallet?  I've tried the Load command from the Pallet and also tried dragging the file directly into Photoshop.  No dice.

     

    Xbytor, I visited your 2 links, but don't understand how I implement my action file into that system.  Is it something I download?  When I visited the links, they were just browser pages filled with what looks like script.

     
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  • bsnyder175
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    4. bsnyder175,
    Aug 9, 2010 1:28 PM   in reply to bsnyder175
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    I did some searching and came across this:

     

    (Photoshop only) Press Ctrl+Alt (Windows) or Command+Option (Mac OS) when you choose the Save Actions command to save the actions in a text file. You can use this file to review or print the contents of an action. However, you can’t reload the text file back into Photoshop.

    So, it seems this doesn't provide a way to edit actions.  You would think they're be a way to edit actions in a text editor though...

     
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  • JJMack
    3,425 posts
    Jan 9, 2006
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    5. JJMack,
    Aug 10, 2010 6:14 AM   in reply to bsnyder175
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    bsnyder175 wrote:

     

    Xbytor, I visited your 2 links, but don't understand how I implement my action file into that system.  Is it something I download?  When I visited the links, they were just browser pages filled with what looks like script.

    Try a right click on the links to Xbytor and choose save link as and save his two scripts into your \Photoshop version\Presets\Scripts. The next time you start Photoshop you will have two nes scripts in meny File>Scripts... . You can edit a XML file with a text editor like wordpad.

     

    Also the Action Palette is a full fledge Action editor.  It should be quite easy to edit you action highlight the sections you want to dupe five times and replicate that section five times then rerecord(edit) the duped "saved as" steps. You may want to look at my crafting action package.

    http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/JJMacksCraftingActions.zip

    Contains:

    Action Actions Palette Tips.txt

    Action Creation Guidelines.txt

    Action Dealing with Image Size.txt

    Action Enhanced via Scripted Photoshop Functions.txt

    CraftedActions.atn Sample Action set includes an example Watermarking action

    Sample Actions.txt Photoshop CraftedActions set saved as a text file. This file has some additional comments I inserted describing how the actions work.

    12 Scripts for actions

     
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  • bsnyder175
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    6. bsnyder175,
    Aug 10, 2010 7:15 AM   in reply to JJMack
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    Also the Action Palette is a full fledge Action editor.  It should be quite easy to edit you action highlight the sections you want to dupe five times and replicate that section five times then rerecord(edit) the duped "saved as" steps. You may want to look at my crafting action package.

    Yeah, this is what I've been doing.  Duplicating actions and just revisiting the save steps, but goodness, it still seems to take an eternity.  Thanks so much for the extra info on the scripts.  I'll also definitely check out your script package.  Anything I can do to make processees quicker is nothing but good news.  Thanks so much, everyone.  I'll report back soon.

     
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  • Infinity_Spiral
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    7. Infinity_Spiral,
    Mar 21, 2013 12:03 PM   in reply to xbytor2
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    This was an incredibly helpful toolset- thank you!

     
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