Where'd My Actions Go?

chuckinsocal

Hi Gang, and Happy New Year to every one.

I've always worked with Photoshop CS3 on my desk top computer but I recently installed it on my lap top for portability. I copied all my actions, filters, etc from my desk top to the corresponding folders on my lap top so I'd have all my tools handy.

All of the .atn files that are on my desktop are now on my lap top as well however the actions that I recorded on my desk top are not showing up in the actions pallet on my lap top. I've searched and searched everywhere I could think of, including the entire C: drive on each computer but my recorded actions are not showing up anywhere.

Is it possible that recorded actions have a different extension than .atn? If not, how do I copy my recorded actions over to the lap top?

Thanks in advance for your help.

BinaryFx

Keeping this reply short and sweet:

In earlier versions of Photoshop, actions were managed via the action palette options menu using the SAVE/LOAD menu command.

In later versions of Photoshop, actions could be placed in the Program folder in the Presets/Actions folder.

Although this MS Word .doc file is a bit old, it used to be the "bible" on all things relating to actions and it is still mostly valid today (thanks to Danny Raphael at RetouchPro.com):

www.atncentral.com/zip/PhotoshopActions_ver1.1Btoc.zip


Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

arodney

Look around for:

Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\X.0\Adobe Photoshop CSX Settings\Actions Palette.psp

That’s where all the Actions live unless you load and then “save actions” to disk (that .atn file). See if you can replace the current one with a recent backup.

BinaryFx

I agree with Andrew, however I made a point not mention this PSP method...

This method can be found in the "Photoshop Actions" MS Word doc that I previously linked.

SECTION Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - for newbies

Point 7 -

Q: Where does Photoshop save the actions I write? Are they in an .atn file like the ones I download from the Internet?

A: Actions you write are NOT save in an .atn file unless you specifically engage the Save Actions… command to do that. Each time you shutdown Photoshop the contents of the Actions Palette, which includes all the actions you write, are save in a preferences file named Actions Palette.psp.

I personally prefer to manually save out each action set as a separate ATN file using the previously mentioned save menu command. This ensures that I have a permanent copy of each action.

If you back up the .psp file when you first get it set-up how you like it, then there are no problems. One may choose to use both methods, manually saving out each separate action set as an ATN file and also backing up the entire current Action Palette configuration as a PSP file.

I use both methods, with my personal preference being to manually save out ATN files more often than not and using the PSP file to a lesser extent.


Regards,


Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

chuckinsocal

Well Guys, that was it ... I never "Saved" my actions after recording them. I guess I just assumed that they were automatically saved as an .atn file after recording.

So I went ahead and saved my actions on my desk top computer, found the atn files, copied them over to the lap top and all is well now.

Thanks a lot guys. I never would have figured that out on my own. Thanks for the Word document too. A wealth of information is in there bow. I promise to pay more attention in the future to managing my actions.

When I was a kid, my Mom always warned me to "Watch my actions" and that was way before computers were invented. How'd she know ?