Keep in mind the following guidelines when recording actions:

• You can record most—but not all—commands in an action.

• You can record operations that you perform with the Marquee, Move, Polygon, Lasso, Magic Wand, Crop, Slice, Magic Eraser, Gradient, Paint Bucket, Type, Shape, Notes, Eyedropper, and Color Sampler tools—as well as those that you perform in the History, Swatches, Color, Paths, Channels, Layers, Styles, and Actions panels.

• Results depend on file and program setting variables, such as the active layer and the foreground color. For example, a 3‑pixel Gaussian blur won’t create the same effect on a 72‑ppi file as on a 144‑ppi file. Nor will Color Balance work on a grayscale file.

• When you record actions that include specifying settings in dialog boxes and panels, the action will reflect the settings in effect at the time of the recording. If you change a setting in a dialog box or panel while recording an action, the changed value is recorded.

  Note: Most dialog boxes retain the settings specified at the previous use. Check carefully that those are the values you want to record.

• Modal operations and tools—as well as tools that record position—use the units currently specified for the ruler. A modal operation or tool is one that requires you to press Enter or Return to apply its effect, such as transforming or cropping. Tools that record position include the Marquee, Slice, Gradient, Magic Wand, Lasso, Shape, Path, Eyedropper, and Notes tools.

  If you record an action that will be played on files of different sizes, set the ruler units to percentages. As a result, the action will always play back in the same relative position in the image.

• You can record the Play command listed on the Actions panel menu to cause one action to play another.

When you create a new action, the commands and tools you use are added to the action until you stop recording.

To guard against mistakes, work in a copy: at the beginning of the action before applying other commands, record the File > Save A Copy command (Illustrator) or record the File > Save As command and select As A Copy (Photoshop). Alternatively, in Photoshop you can click the New Snapshot button on the History panel to make a snapshot of the image before recording the action.

1. Open a file.
2. In the Actions panel, click the Create New Action button , or choose New Action from the Actions panel menu.
3. Enter an action name, select an action set, and set additional options:

   Function Key

   Assigns a keyboard shortcut to the action. You can choose any combination of a function key, the Ctrl key (Windows) or Command key (Mac OS), and the Shift key (for example, Ctrl+Shift+F3), with these exceptions: In Windows, you cannot use the F1 key, nor can you use F4 or F6 with the Ctrl key.

   Note: If you assign an action the same shortcut that is used for a command, the shortcut will apply the action rather than the command.

   Color

   Assigns a color for display in Button mode.

4. Click Begin Recording. The Begin Recording button in the Actions panel turns red .
   Important: When recording the Save As command, do not change the filename. If you enter a new filename, that new name is recorded and used each time you run the action. Before saving, if you navigate to a different folder, you can specify a different location without having to specify a filename.
5. Perform the operations and commands you want to record.

   Not all tasks in actions can be recorded directly; however, you can insert most nonrecordable tasks using commands in the Actions panel menu.

6. To stop recording, either click the Stop Playing/Recording button, or choose Stop Recording from the Actions panel menu. (In Photoshop, you can also press the Esc key.)

To resume recording in the same action, choose Start Recording from the Actions panel menu.

1. Do one of the following:

   • Start recording an action.

   • Select an action’s name to record a path at the end of the action.

   • Select a command to record a path after the command.

2. Select an existing path from the Paths panel.
3. Choose Insert Path from the Actions panel menu.

1. Choose where to insert the stop by doing one of the following:

   • Select an action’s name to insert a stop at the end of the action.

   • Select a command to insert a stop after the command.

2. Choose Insert Stop from the Actions panel menu.
3. Type the message you want to appear.
4. If you want the option to continue the action without stopping, select Allow Continue.
5. Click OK.

You can insert a stop when recording an action or after it has been recorded.

1. If necessary, expand the listing of commands in the action by clicking the triangle to the left of the action name in the Actions panel.
2. Do one of the following:

   • To exclude a single command, click to clear the check mark to the left of the command name. Click again to include the command.

   • To exclude or include all commands or actions in an action or set, click the check mark to the left of the action or set name.

   • To exclude or include all commands except the selected command, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) its check mark.

     To indicate that some of the commands within the action are excluded, in Photoshop the check mark of the parent action turns red; in Illustrator the check mark of the parent action becomes dimmed.

1. Choose where to insert the menu item:

   • Select an action’s name to insert the item at the end of the action.

   • Select a command to insert the item at the end of the command.

2. Choose Insert Menu Item from the Actions panel menu.
3. With the Insert Menu Item dialog box open, choose a command from its menu.
4. Click OK.