Photoshop has a very nice feature that let's you record something, save that recording as a script, and then, replay that scrip as many times as you tell it to. This comes in very handy if you have a certain number of effects you want to apply to an image in a certain order, or if you have a huge folder of images you want to resize and save to another folder.

Let's tackle the first example...

You've just gone out and snapped a bunch of pictures with your digital camera, came home, and uploaded them to your PC. Let's say they are all sitting there in a folder on your desktop. Now since they are shot at a super high resolution, you might want to resize ALL of your pics. Here's how you do it once, and Photoshop will do the rest...

Ok, first open a picture, any picture in that folder of new pictures in Photoshop. Then create a new Action from the Actions Panel, as shown in the picture.

A dialogue box will pop up, fill it out how you feel. Give the action a name, place it in an action folder (maybe you have a personal folder you've made in the list?) and give it a hotkey, only if you think you'll need it. That way, you can start your script with the press of a button.

Notice how the "Ok" button actually says "Record" on it. Photoshop will start logging what you do the second you hit the button. Press it. :)

Now you decide what you want to do.

If you plan on shrinking down all the images, create a new folder for them.

I decide to resize the image (Image -> Image Size...) to something smaller. Then I saved the image
(press: Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S) and saved it to the new folder I made. Then I simply closed the image, without saving it.

Click the Stop Button on the Actions Panel (where you first made the new action).

Now it's time to tell Photoshop to take what you've recorded and do it to the whole folder.

Click: File -> Automate -> Batch...
This prompt will appear and if you look how I have filled it out, I've told Photoshop to take the action I've made and named, "Tutorial Action" in the Default Actions folder, told the action to run on the folder I picked out, and told it to spit everything out into the folder I also selected. All you have to do then is click ok. By default it will keep the file names all similar.

Photoshop will now rip through all the images and do the busy work for you. Enjoy. :)

One other method is very similar to the one above, therefore I won't go into great detail. Your actions can be played also by pressing a button, or pressing play on that action from the Actions Panel, not just going to File -> Automate -> Batch...

At the time you make your action, give it a Function Key (otherwise known as hotkey). This gives you the ability to play off that action at a press of a button. This is good when you have, for instance a certain filter you have setup just right you want to run on an image, or selected area.

Start playing around with Actions. The time you put in will be rewarded more fold in efficiency as long as you plan well. :)

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