Installing actions in PSE

[Michel B]

I have not yet seen a complete tutorials about installing actions in PSE6, but there has been many threads on the subject. This is my personal experience in transferring PSE4 or PSE5 actions to PSE6, following many tips given by experienced users, particularly Barbara Brundage...

Copying the actions must be made in the following folder for Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0\Photo Creations\photo effects

Restarting PSE6 and looking in the effects palette, photo effects (3rd icon from the left) and 'show all' option, you should have access to each individual *.atn file. The problem is you can't insert a set of actions... until someone finds a way to do this.

You'll have to create icons for each *.atn file you copy there. For each *.atn file, there is an accompanying *.png icon file. The creating process is the same as what was used for PSE4 to create folder icons. The icons are 64x64 and saved as *.png files.

If you want to delete an effect, don't simply erase the *.atn and *.png files, you must erase it in the effect palette by right clicking and choosing delete.

If you want to select a dozen favorite actions or effects, there is no longer a favorite in the effect palette. The favorite is another palette (show it in the Window menu). If you have not created icons, you could find the actions in the effects palette by their names, but you would see blank icons in the favorite...

Hope this helps...

[TonyW]

Michel: Good summary. The other key to the puzzle are the xml files. Each action can have an XML file (you'll find them in a Photo Creations Metadata folder and they can be language specific). With these you can control the drop down that the effect appears in. I suspect there are a lot more things you can do with them but I haven't got it all figured out yet and you also need to find the right cache to regenerate. If you figure it out let me know :D

The good news is that it now doesn't lose the favorites like PSE5 did - at least I haven't lost one yet.

Tony

[graficalicus]

when you right-click and delete an effect from the palette, though, it deletes the .xml file.

This is no biggie, if you never make a mistake :cool: because once an effect is deleted from the palette, it's deleted for good, unless you reinstall, delete & restore the media databases & thumbnail databases.

Whew.

on another note, I've got Handy Actions lite coming tonight for PSE 3-6. PSE6 reuires a separate installer than the others, though -0

[graficalicus]

Tony, I believe the cache rebuilding is date-based. So if the media cache was created on xx/xx/xxxx date, and an effect is simply dropped in that was created before that date, the cache may or may not recognize it. That's one of the wobbly issues in adding things (Add-O-Matic 6 is proving tricky.....)

I'm getting around it in the action installers by regenerating the actions, thumbs & xml files, so they have a date/time stamp that is definitely created after the database was generated (i.e., if you run the installer NOW, it's obviously after the PSE database was generated - because now is the more recent event.)


Geez, now my head really hurts.....

[TonyW]

Graffi: thanks for that insight. I've been messing around a bit and my head was hurting too :D. But your Handy Actions Lite for PSE6 worked like a charm for me :)

Tony

[graficalicus]

Glad you like them! I just made them available for public consumption :cool:

[TonyW]

Graffi: I see that. Good stuff and you've made it real easy. And I like those new skins. Definitely fits the PSE6 look :D

Tony

[Hummie]

I'm currently playing with this and I have sort of gotten it working, but now there are two icons to click on for each action! Too crazy!

[clemsonjim]

I added one of Grant's actions to 6.0 and everything worked fine. I added the Transform Selection and then made PNG file to accompany, but did not like the way it looked. I deleted old PNG file with right click and added a new PNG file, but it continues to pickup the first PNG that was added. I am guessing that the database is retaining the PNG file and I don't know how to work with xml files.
I added Graffi's Handy Action Lite and it worked fine and created a folder and everything. I have not figured out where the folder (drop down list) is stored, but I'm sure Graffi will have us a new version of Add-A-Matic soon?!

[Hummie]

I just got Grant's actions and all of my Atomic Cupcake actions to work finally.

My Grant's actions had a .psd file with a bunch of layers within. I saved each layer as a .png file and made sure the name of the file matched the name of the .atn file.

I did the same for all of the other actions too.

I was getting two of everything for a while.

I deleted the MediaDatabase.db3 and let it regenerate and then got none of them!

I did have them in subfolders, so I took them all out of subfolders and now everything works fine.

I think my problem before was that I left Grant's .psd file in the folder...getting rid of that also helped.

[clemsonjim]

I just deleted the action from the effects palette and then renamed both the atn and PNG files and it reloaded with the correct graphic. I did have to hold down the shift key while starting to get it to load.

[graficalicus]

I added Graffi's Handy Action Lite and it worked fine and created a folder and everything. I have not figured out where the folder (drop down list) is stored, but I'm sure Graffi will have us a new version of Add-A-Matic soon?!

Jim, check my blog :cool: