How to create actions in Photoshop CS5

I got very excited when I FINALLY learned how to create and record my own Photoshop actions. It saves up so much of my time when I need to do the same action for a group of photos, e.g. resizing pictures to post on the web.

I got a little help from this easy-to-follow video tutorial on photoshopsupport.com.

Let's get started! These simple steps will show you how to resize your pictures, but you can customize the steps (Steps 6-9 below) with your most used actions in Photoshop. It looks long, but it's really simple.

1. Open the photo you want to resize
2. Select Window, and then click on Action.  

3. An Action palette will pop up. You'll see a list of Actions, but you don't have to be bothered by them for now. Click on "Create new action" at the bottom of you Action palette.

4. Name your new action, e.g. Image resize, and click Record.

5. Once you hit the record button, don't mess around, because it will record every step you make!

6. In this example, we want to record actions for resizing an image for the web (Step 6-9):

- Under Image, select Image Size.
- Change resolution to 72
- Change either width or height to 800, depending on which one is widest. The other side will automatically adjust by itself

7. Click Ok
8. Under File, click on Save for Web and Devices

9. Make sure the file is JPEG, click Save

10. Under File, select Close to close your photo

11. Hit the Stop button on the Action palette

That's it! I recorded separate Actions for vertical photos, and also for horizontal ones.

Now... how to use back the Actions that you just created? If you have a batch of photos, here's how:

1. Under File, select Automate, and then click on Batch
2. A Batch pop-up window will appear. Select the Action you have saved, and apply it to the open files source.

To use back the Actions you've created for only one single file, just select the Action from the Actions list on the palette and click on "Play Selection".