Search bar for finding actions or brushes in PS

[jamieb17977390]

I've been using PS for nearly 20 years and have always been frustrated by the actions panel. I use button view and have quite a collection of actions to help process images, perhaps too many. It's VERY time consuming to scroll through them all trying to locate the one I want to use. I know them by name or what they do for me, but locating them is difficult as the are not loaded alphabetically.

For years, I've been trying to figure out where the search bar is to simply type in the action name to locate and implement a specific action I want to use. I've never found this and it seems quite obvious, rudimentary and necessary for efficiency when processing photos. Why can't I find this?? Please tell me there IS a search bar option to alleviate the time suck that searching row by row for a name in a sea of hundreds can be?!!!  It's baffling that a beast of a program like PS would not have a simple, time saving, tool like this.

Also, is it possible to create multiple tabs in the action panel where I could sort the actions by type (for example a tab for skin/teeth/eyes actions, a tab for sunlight overlays, a tab for color tone actions, a tab for all black and white actions, etc) to help shorten the search party and organize them into smaller specific groups to locate what I'm looking for?

[Sameer K]

Hey, @jamieb17977390. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. While I've shared your other post about Actions to the team for review.

Responding here to address that the Brushes panel has a live-search options from quite a while already.

We hope this helps. Thanks!
Sameer K

[matildab87830422]

I would also LOVE a search function on the actions! I have a long list of actions I reqularly use which I have to scroll through. 

[MosaicW]

Same problem here!!! So frustrating, both the lack of search ability and the organization options. Yes I have too many actions, but a huge number of photographers do and it is what it is... we paid for them, so we want to be able to use them (and efficiently).

While there is an option to drag actions around so they're next to each other, and to color code them, there needs to be more of a dynamic way to sort them as needed.  For example I can group all my eye actions together, but that pulls them out of their original locations, so then if I want to follow along with a tutorial for one particular action set (like a Greater Than Gatsby how-to), my actions are no longer with that set and I'd be jumping all around looking for the right one. I'd like to be able to sort them in different ways as needed, i.e. by "skin actions" or "sun flare" actions but also by "Greater Than Gatsby actions" or "Summerana actions" etc. And at a MINIMUM be able to search for the name of course.  

If you aren't familiar with the current organization options and Button mode I mentioned above, this is how that all currently works (as of Nov 2024):

1. At the top right of the actions panel, click the 4 lines (hamburger) and make sure Button mode is UNCHECKED. (You can't move things around or change them while in button mode).

2. Click and drag an action wherever you want it to be (maybe drag your most frequently used ones to the very top, or put all the eye ones together, skin ones together, etc... just keep in mind it won't be with that original action set anymore).

3. When you have the actions where you want them, you can rename them, and also color code them (only visible in Button mode though). To do this, while you have the action selected you want to change, click the 4 lines/hamburger again at the top and select "Action Options" from the drop down menu.

4. Set the color if you want make it easier to find certain actions, or want to spot the group easier (for example all of the eye actions blue, all the lip actions pink, etc...). Note you would have to use Button mode to see the colors, so if you aren't a fan of using Button mode than no point in setting colors. You can also change the name of the action here though if you want, or set a shortcut key for it.

5. So now click the 4 lines/hamburger again and turn Button mode ON and you will see your actions, with the colors/names you set, together where you dragged them. In my case I put 5 actions I use frequently for the current images I'm working on at the very top and made them all indigo in color. Yes it's annoying that all the other actions after them have colors too (many of them come this way when you download their .atn files and I haven't had time to try to clean them up) so be careful to overuse color or have too many categories as they may still seem jumbled even after these techniques. But at least it's something!! Hope this helps someone!

[Thomas Zagler]

Hello, I would like to mention my Photoshop plugin ActionBrowser with which it is possible to search for actions and start them with a click or Enter and much more. Maybe this is what you are searching for. There is also a free version available.

[matildab87830422]

Thomas, this looks great! I will check it out!

[Thomas Zagler]

Thanks 🙂 Let me know your feedback.

[matildab87830422]

Wow Thomas, your plugin is sehr gut! Perfect companion to the very fiddly Actions-panel. Would love a function to "inspect" the content of an action, just to make sure that it is what I am looking for, but maybe it is back to fiddly again!

I also did see the "Configurator" panel-plugin that you offer. Will take that one for a spin in my next down-time period. Looks like a good solution to cherry-pick the tools I actually use 95% of the time. 

[Thomas Zagler]

Thanks @matildab87830422!

Would love a function to "inspect" the content of an action.

Unfortunately, this is not technically possible.

I also did see the "Configurator" panel-plugin that you offer. Will take that one for a spin in my next down-time period. Looks like a good solution to cherry-pick the tools I actually use 95% of the time.

That’s great! I’m confident it will streamline your workflow and bring clarity to Photoshop’s cluttered UI, making your process much more efficient.