Select Same > Appearance works manually but not in an Action

[David Cardillo, PRH]

I'm trying to select objects with the same appearance with an action. All of the items have the same fill color and opacity (transparency) setting.

I cannot select Same > Fill color as some objects with the same fill have a different opacity. I cannot select Same > Opacity because not all the transparent objects have the same fill. (Both of these Select options do work in my action.)

My action is creating an object with the same appearance attributes (fill, opacity) and doing Select > Same > Appearance.

When I create this object manually, the option selects all the objects I want, correctly.

When I record the creation of the object, so when it plays back it creates the same object, playing back the Select action doesn't select anything.

Is there some appearance attribute I'm missing? Something that perhaps doesn't get recorded so it isn't there when the object is created by the action that is there when I do it by hand?

This would be a whole lot easier if you were able to select multiple selection criteria, or be able to add to or subtract from a selection.

[sttk3]

Tried it and it actually worked as reported, no selections were made. After registering the graphic style with the appearance of the PageItem to be searched, and applying it to the path generated by the action, it now works as intended.

1. Action Panel > Insert Select Path
2. Applying the same appearance graphic style as the PageItem to be searched
3. Select > Same > Appearance

Would this be an alternative?

[David Cardillo, PRH]

hi, @sttk3, I just want to be sure I"m understanding you correctly.

My action is creating an object that has the same appearance attributes that I'm trying to select, then using Select > Same > Appearance.

Are you suggesting I create the object, then apply those appearance attributes to the object, then try selecting by Same > Appearance?

[David Cardillo, PRH]

please see my follow-up comment below: Select > Same > Appearance does not work to select an object created by an action. Somehow, even when everything is the same, they show up as "Mixed Appearances" when one of them was created with an action.

[sttk3 · Accepted solution]

What I am saying is that if you specify the color and transparency for the rectangle automatically generated by the action via a graphic style, rather than specifying them individually, everything will have exactly the same appearance, and you can select them as the Same Apperance.

[David Cardillo, PRH]

thank you, that's giving me something to go on. I'll have to create a graphics style library with the different opacities I'm selecting, and hopefully be able to import them into each file as a step in the action, but that would be better than a separate action for each variant. This is hopeful.

[David Cardillo, PRH]

this is the solution that I used, though I did have to cheat, a bit — it's not entirely hands-off automatic.

Because I could not record the creation of graphic styles (not without an action generating the attributes which would cause exactly this issue again), I created several objects, each with the different attributes I'm selecting for, assigned them graphic styles with unique names, then copied them to my clipboard.

After that, the first step in my action was "Paste in place." (So it was off the side of the artboard.)

Then the subsequent actions were to generate a new object and assign it one of the styles, then Select > Same > Appearance.

That worked.

[David Cardillo, PRH]

It now appears something else is going on.

Somehow I've managed to create multiple objects with the same appearance attributes, namely opacity, that even though they're listed as the same — because I typed in the same values — they're showing up as "mixed appearances."

At this point I'm baffled.

[Kurt Gold]

Can you share at least one sample Illustrator file as well as the action set file?

Include some instructions.

[David Cardillo, PRH]

Hi, Kurt, let me see if I can simplify this to make it easier to understand.

1. Make a new, blank document.
2. Start recording an action in the Action panel.
3. Record yourself making a new rectangle with the Rectangle tool.
4. Set the Fill to Black, and the Stroke to None.
5. Change the Opacity in the Transparency panel to 20%.
6. Stop recording.
7. Move that frame to the side.
8. Manually create a new rectangle, using the same steps as above.
9. Under the Select menu, choose "Same > Appearance."
10. You should see the previous rectangle you made included in the selection.
11. Your Properties and Attributes panels should contain the same information for both objects.
12. Now run your action you just recorded in the Actions panel.
13. Choose Select > Same > Appearance.
14. Note that nothing else gets selected.
15. Manually select the rectangle created by the action plus either of the ones created manually.
16. Note the Attributes panel now says "Mixed Attributes."

You recorded yourself making an object with certain attributes. You played back that action and according to every panel it has the same attributes as the one you previously created, but you cannot use Select > Same > Appearance to select them both because the appearances are "Mixed."

I recorded a video of the process: https://app.screencast.com/dQQAjWL9SEUgl I'm eager to see if you get different results.

My system:

MacBook Pro

15-inch, 2018

2.9 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i9
Radeon Pro 560X 4 GB
Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4

Illustrator version: 28.3.0

[Kurt Gold]

Thanks for the clarification, David. Indeed, now it's easier to understand and I can confirm the unexpected behaviour you described.

Unfortunately, at the moment I cannot explain this discrepancy. Obviously there is a slight variance when setting the opacity as part of an action record, as opposed to doing it without recording it, though the difference is not evident when looking at the action code.

I can imagine that it's just one of those internal 0,0001 (unit) discrepancies that cannot be solved easily.

[Egor Chistyakov]

Now reported here here at UserVoice (thanks).

Confirm this.