Adding A New Step To An Action

As I mentioned on the previous page, Photoshop allows us to make changes to an existing step in an action only when the step involves using a dialog box to set various options. By double-clicking directly on the step, we tell Photoshop to pop the dialog box open for us so we can make changes, and then we simply close the dialog box when we're done. If the step we need to change does not use a dialog box, the only way we can edit it is by deleting the step and then re-recording it. We've already looked at how to delete a step from an action, which is easily done by dragging it down on to the Trash Bin at the bottom of the Actions palette. Here, we'll look at how to add a step to an action.

Remember when we stepped through the original Photo Corners action? The very first step in the action was "Make snapshot", which took a snapshot of the state of the image just before the action was played and saved it in the History palette. This way, we could quickly undo all the steps in the action if needed by switching over to the History palette and clicking on the snapshot. After we dragged a copy of the action, which we renamed "Improved Photo Corners", into our new "My Actions" set so we could edit it, the first thing we did was delete that "Make snapshot" step. My reasoning for deleting the step at the time was that I would most likely be running the action on a newly opened image in Photoshop, and since we can easily revert an image back to the way it looked when we opened it (or at least to the way it looked when we last saved it) by going up to the File menu and choosing Revert, I didn't think the "Make snapshot" step was necessary, so I deleted it.

Well, as is often the case, it's not until you've tossed something away that you realize how much it really meant to you. After a bit more thought, I realize now that deleting that step was a mistake. What if I wanted to run the "Improved Photo Corners" action on an image that I had already done a considerable amount of photo retouching work on? Sure, I could save the image first before running the action, but what if I forgot to save it first? If I tried to undo the action by selecting Revert from the File menu, not only would I be undoing all the steps in the action, I'd also be undoing everything else I had done to the image! Suddenly, having that "Make snapshot" step there doesn't sound like such a bad idea. But what to do? I've already deleted it! Do I have to re-record the entire action again, or edit another copy of the original just to get that one step back? Thankfully, no. All I need to do is re-record that one step.

To add a step to an action, the first thing we need to do is select the step that comes just before the spot where we need to insert the step. For example, if the step you're adding needs to be the third step in the action, click on the second step in the action to select it before you begin recording. This way, when you record the new step, Photoshop will automatically place it immediately after the step you had selected. Keep in mind that you'll most likely need to play all the steps in the action up to that point in order to add the new step, otherwise Photoshop may not understand what you're trying to do and will throw you an error message, which makes sense. After all, if you tried telling someone to "turn left at the next intersection" while the two of you are still standing beside the car deciding where to go for lunch, they probably won't have any idea what you're talking about and may start wondering if going anywhere at all with you is such a good idea.

Remember, to play steps in an action one at a time, hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and double-click on each step. You'll probably need to do this from the beginning of the action until you reach the point where you want to insert your new step.

In my case, I have a bit of a problem. I want to insert a new step at the very beginning of the action, which means, obviously, that there are no steps that come before it for me to select, and that means there's no way for me to have Photoshop automatically place my new step at the beginning of the action. No worries though, since we can easily rearrange the order of the steps, as we'll see in a moment. For now, I'll simply select the step that's currently the first step, "Convert Mode":

To record a new step, simply click on the Record icon at the bottom of the Actions palette:

You'll see the little "button" turn red, letting you know that you're now in Record mode:

Now, remember what we said at the very beginning. There's no reason to panic just because the little record button is red. Yes, we're technically in Record mode, but we can take as much time as we want recording our step because actions are not recorded in real time. All Photoshop records are the steps themselves. I want to have the action take a snapshot of my image before any further steps are run, so with Photoshop recording what I'm doing, I'm going to switch over to my History palette, which by default is sitting right next to the Actions palette, and I'll click on the New Snapshot icon at the bottom of the palette (it's the icon that looks like a camera):

This adds a snapshot of the current state of my image to the top of the History palette:

I'll switch back over to my Actions palette now, and we can see that a new step named "Make snapshot" has been added directly below the "Convert Mode" step, which is the step I selected before clicking the Record icon:

I've finished recording my step, so I can now stop recording. To do that, I'll click on the Stop icon to the left of the Record icon:

And there we go! I've successfully added a new "Make snapshot" step to my "Improved Photo Corners" action. The only problem is that I want this new step to be the first step in the action, and at the moment, it's the second step. Let's fix that.

Changing The Order Of Steps In An Action

To change the order of steps in an action, simply click on a step to select it, then drag into into place. I want to move my "Make snapshot" step above the "Convert Mode" step, so I'll click on it to select it in the Actions palette, then I'll drag it up above the "Convert Mode" step. Notice the black horizontal line that appears where I'm about to drop the step:

I'll release my mouse button to drop the step into its new position, and we can see that it now appears as the very first step in the action, right where I wanted it:

And there we have it! We've now covered just about everything we need to know when it comes to using actions in Photoshop! At this point, recording our own actions from scratch should be fairly straightforward since there's really nothing to it that we haven't already seen. With that in mind, let's record our very own action!

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