How to do PS actions??

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I've always wanted to know how to create actions in Photoshop (i'm using PS 7). I'm trying to resize alot of photos without having to go and individually resize them. Any help would be appreciated!!
 
Go to the actions pallete, click new action, name it, and it starts recording. Go through the steps you want the action to do, and when you are done, hit stop on the actions pallete. That's it.
 
yeah, you record the actions and then when you want to use them you hit the play button on the actions pallette (the triangle at the bottom). If you have ALOT of images you can also do a "batch" in which you can run actions on an entire folder versus an image at a time. It's been awhile since I've done one and I don't know if I could explain how to do it very well.
 
The problem I have is with borders.
I want to make a 1 px white border and a 15 px black border on photos of various sizes. WHat happens, is the border is always the same size (always the wrong one, even if I try it on another picture with the exact same dimensions) How do you make an action that works for all sizes?
 
you could probably learn the percentage of the image size that you want the border width to be then just switch to percentage instead of pixels when making the border.
 
to create the border, you'll want to set the select value to something higher than any of the images you'll ever process so that it fills the whole frame without fail... or on second thoughts just use select all... and then choose the select>Border command... (the border itself may be down another sub heading..) and choose the black making it 16px then fill, deselect and select all again then choose border once more with 1 px white. as long as you choose select all rather than a specific size it should be right... also keep in mind the resolutions of your images. if it's high high high res then 15-16px isn't that much... so in that case the percentage would be a good idea.
 
I would create the border by adding to the canvas size. Add 2 pixels to the canvas size(because 2 will add 1 to each side, can't do 1/2 pixels), your background color being white, then switch your background color to black, and add 15 pixels to the canvas. This should be easily made into an action that works on any size photo equally well.

ps: Using select all and then select/modify/border puts the border on your image itself, hiding some of your photo, and it will also be quite feathered and soft. Adding to canvas size increases the canvas around your photo, and none of your composition is lost.
 

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