8 Replies Latest reply: Apr 6, 2010 8:18 AM by c.pfaffenbichler RSS

    actions don't play back step by step

    Christian Davideck Community Member

      Hi folks. My actions don't play back step by step, although I have selected "step by step" from the playback options in the actions palette. Any ideas how to solve the problem? CS3. Thank you.

        • 1. Re: actions don't play back step by step
          c.pfaffenbichler Community Member

          What exactly did you expect? Does the program not do a redraw after each step?

           

          Maybe you should try the »Pause for«-setting. 

          • 2. Re: actions don't play back step by step
            Christian Davideck Community Member

            ok, I was convinced "step by step" would pause for user input after each step before continuing (hence the name "step by step"), similar to "step by step" code execution. This seemed so self-evident, that I didn't check against the user manual, so I was very surprised now to read:

             

            "Completes each command and redraws the image before going on to the next command in the action."

             

            I get the idea, but in practice this seems rather useless to me, as there is hardly any difference between "accelerated" and "step by step". In fact the latter runs so fast, that the user has virtually zero time to follow any on-screen redrawing.

             

            I welcome the "wait x seconds" options, but I dearly miss a "wait for user input" option, because basic steps (e.g. "select layer X") might require only one second of attention, while more complexe parts of the action might require thorough studying, e.g. one or more minutes ... which in turn would lead to a delay of 10 minutes just for selecting a couple of layers ...

             

            So this definitely isn't user-friendly.

            • 3. Re: actions don't play back step by step
              Christian Davideck Community Member

              And yes, I know I can double click each step in an action to execute on its own, but that's cumbersome for long actions.

              • 4. Re: actions don't play back step by step
                D Fosse-QDEaQ1 Community Member

                There is a "wait for user input" option - ticking the dialog icon in the panel - ?

                • 5. Re: actions don't play back step by step
                  Christian Davideck Community Member

                  EDIT:

                  ok, the .pdf manual refers to it as "dialog box icon" that's why I couldn't find what you are referring to initially, but I got it now. And yes, it is indeed helpful, but only in a very limited way, because only 1 in about 4 or 5 actions in a action set does have a dialog box icon to toggle, all others are still played back in speed of light )-:

                   

                  I also realized that I can ctrl-click the play button to play one step only. This more or less solves my problem.

                   

                  Although I wish Photoshop would offer the user to just hit a function key instead (like you do when executing lines of code one by one). Or can I assign a keyboard shortcut to this?

                   

                  And "step by step" in the playback options is really misleading, because it's just not what it does. It should be renamed (e.g. "background playback (faster)" instead of "accelerated", and "on-screen playback" instead of "step by step".

                  • 6. Re: actions don't play back step by step
                    c.pfaffenbichler Community Member
                    And "step by step" in the playback options is really misleading, because it's just not what it does.

                    You don’t seem to appreciate the differences: In accelerated mode the image does not get redrawn after each step, which can save considerable time.

                     

                    One could insert one or more Stops in an Action (Insert Stop in the fly-out of the Actions Panel).

                     

                    The Play-command can also be assigned a Keyboard Shortcut (see image).

                    playAction.jpg

                    • 7. Re: actions don't play back step by step
                      Christian Davideck Community Member

                      c.pfaffenbichler wrote:

                      And "step by step" in the playback options is really misleading, because it's just not what it does.

                      You don’t seem to appreciate the differences: In accelerated mode the image does not get redrawn after each step, which can save considerable time.

                       

                      From posting #2 you should have seen that I DO.

                      I was unaware of the differences though at the time of the OP and your first posting prompted me to read the chapter in the manual.

                       

                      I still consider it misleading to label the option "step by step", because it's just NOT what it does. As said above:

                       

                      Christian Davideck wrote:

                      It should be renamed (e.g. "background playback (faster)" instead of "accelerated", and "on-screen playback" instead of "step by step".

                       

                      And thank you for:

                      c.pfaffenbichler wrote:

                      The Play-command can also be assigned a Keyboard Shortcut (see image).

                       

                      Actually my question for a keyboard shortcut did concern the "run next step/action" command (CTRL+click the play button), not the "normal" run. Is there a way to assign a shortcut to this?

                      • 8. Re: actions don't play back step by step
                        c.pfaffenbichler Community Member
                        Actually my question for a keyboard shortcut did concern the "run next step/action" command (CTRL+click the play button), not the "normal" run. Is there a way to assign a shortcut to this?

                        Running the next step might be possible with a Script (which in turn could be assigned a Shortcut), but probably out of my league; ScriptingListener seems to record the step as the specific step in the specific Action so one would have to determine which step in which Action is currently selected, which I don’t know how to do (or if it’s indeed possible) …

                        You could ask in the Photoshop Scripting Forum if you really miss the capability and no better solution is presented.

                         

                        And I still don’t agree that »step by step« is to be interpreted as to indicate the possibility of user input between steps …