How to create Actions and Batch Actions in Photoshop

How to create Actions

In order to create an action the first thing you need to do is open the action bar menu. To do this go to the Windows option at the top of the screen and scroll don't till you find the Actions option. Click it.

After you have selected the option a Task box will appearer on the right hand side of the page.

To create an new Action you need to selected 'Create New Action' on the bottom of the task box( its right next to the bin icon on the bottom of the task box.)

  

 An options box will appear on the screen and for now just leave it on is default settings. Press record and the new action will start to take note of every action you take, until you press the stop button. For now press the stop button and go the File, Open to selected an image to demonstrate this next part.

Once the image is open press the Record button again so the Action can follow what you are going to do to the image. For my project I will be creating the Action to resize my images to create a video strip. So, I selected the Image option and select Image Size.

  

When the task box appears I will change my images With to 720 pixels so all my images will be the same size and fit on the film reel. Once I've pressed ok its time to stop the recording in the Actions task box, as that is the only action i want to be repeated to all my images.

Once finished remember to Save As the image under a new name or in a new folder, so you know which images are resized for the film strip. 

Creating a Batch Action

Now that the Action is made its time to create a Batch Action to make life easier. A Batch Action will take a batch of images a preform the chosen Action on them all. One after the other. Before you change your images make sure there all placed in one folder. Now to to create a Batch Action got to File, Automate and then Batch.

A task box like the one above should appear. In the Play section select the action you want to us. In Source select the folder with the images you want to change and in Destination selected a folder to transfer the new sized images into. I suggest making a new folder entirely. Press ok a watch the magic happen. Now the only problem I have come across is that you need to create more than one action for Portrait images with the hight set to 720 pixels. I suggest you separate Landscape on Portrait images into two folders for the source but, have them go to the same destination so that all the resized images are together in the end.