Forgot to say, this is Photoshop CS 8 on Win XP.
try checking the override save box and setting the output path. i think that’s it. i could be wrong though, especially if you’re changing the file type. try it on some dummy files before you commit real work to it.
Here’s another tactic that may produce the results you are looking for…
At the point where you would normally "record" the File > Save As… command choose Insert Menu Item… from the Actions Palette menu. This will bring up the IMI dialog.
At this point select Save As… from the File menu as you normally would, which populates the IMI dialog. Click OK to complete the insert process.
When the action executes this command, the working directory will be the same as the most recently opened file.
I don’t know what the "override save box" is. There isn’t anything in the save dialog like that.
Don’t see anything called "override save box" in the preferences either.
Where do I find this box, and what is it supposed to do?
Thanks!
Dave may have assumed you’re processing images in batch. Is that true or are you processing them one at a time (my assumption)?
oops sorry. that’s in the batch dialog. help for it says:
"When this option is on, files will be saved to the destination folder only by ‘save as’ steps in the action."
I am processing images one at a time, not batch.
There is a bit of unavoidable handwork to do on each file, then I want to click on an action to finish up the part I can automate. As part of the automation, I want to save the file under a different name (although not a different file type). The name I want to use is constant.
I tried using your "Insert Menu Item" idea. All this did was bring up a dialog box for File/Save As. I already have the dialog box brought up by setting the Save As as a modal action. What I want to do is set it as a non-modal action and just have the file saved without bringing up the dialog box. There’s no need for the dialog box when I can hardcode the file name I want.
Thank you!
It’s not always easy to come up with solutions in this forum format. After rereading your original post I picked up on something you wrote that I missed on the first pass, hence my elegant suggestion solving the wrong problem. Sorry about that…
Regarding your original request, I don’t know of a way to do that. But there may still be hope…
As I understand the desired workflow:
1. File > Open an image
2. Do your handiwork manually
3. Invoke an action to apply commands that can be automated, Save As (modify file name), placing the renamed file in the folder from which it was opened and Close.
4. Repeat as needed
Is this correct?
If so (or pretty close), would it be acceptable to…
1. File > Open an image
2. Do your handiwork manually (when finished, don’t save or close)
3. Open another image
4. Do your handiwork manually on the 2nd one
5. Repeat as needed applying manual changes to all images (without saving or closing any of them)
6. When finished invoke an action that (to each on-screen image) applies commands that can be automated, assigns a modified name, e.g., original-file-name-NEW.jpg, saves it in Source folder and closes it.
The only slight catch would be having to specify the destination folder each time. The file saves, closes and renames would be automatic and hands off.
If this would work for you, we’ll continue on.
Hi Danny,
I think you’re right on now in your description of "desired workflow".
I don’t think that you’re proposed alternative workflow is going to work well for me. For starters, my images are spread across a vast number of directories. So specifying the directory each time would get old fast. It’s also probably not any better than my current solution (automate everything, popup the "save as" dialog box, and type in the renamed name by hand – then the save goes to the correct directory automatically.
However, I am interested in seeing what it is you were going to propose. Perhaps there is some nugget in there I can adapt to my situation.
Seems odd to me that PS doesn’t allow a "save as" in an action to the current directory. That would seem like a fairly common thing to want to do.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Howard
One more thing – when I said I was interested in seeing what you had in mind, I’m particularly interested in seeing how you were going to automate the file rename.
Howard
