Add final step to Action/Macro Script: Minimize Photoshop window

[Too Long23393079qrki]

For the life of me I can't find any information on this topic. I even tried chatGPT before coming here. 

Here is my workflow: 

• Browse through images with my photo viewer
• Send bad samples to Photoshop
• Press F2 to trigger my edit photo macro (works well)
• It saves & closes the workspace as inteded and I have to minimize Photoshop manually to resume my work.

My problem: I can't find any hotkey, setting, macro, action, ANYTHING to tell Photoshop to minimize the window in the final step of the macro. Is there anything I can do? Any help and guidance is greatly appreciated. Running on v23.1.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

I am not aware of a way to do this via an action. I am not aware of a direct way to do this with a script, however, one can indirectly do this by bringing another program to the front (Finder on Mac, File Explorer on Win or another program. Such a script could be incorporated into the action.

Are you looking for a Mac, Win or cross-platform solution?

[Too Long23393079qrki]

Thanks for the answer Stephen. I'm looking for a Windows solution, so ideally I'd like to bring my photoviewer (Irfanview) back to the foreground. That sounds promising, I wasn't aware that it was possible to incorporate that into an action?

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

... I wasn't aware that it was possible to incorporate that into an action?

By @Too Long23393079qrki

Yes, scripts can be used by an action!

You may find the following "Action Helper Scripts" useful, or at least informative:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/photoshop-action-helper-scripts/td-p/...

[AJJ22656695e0lw]

For photoshop, save as .jsx file:

app.system("powershell -command \"(Get-Process -Name Photoshop).MainWindowHandle | ForEach-Object { if($_){$sig = '[DllImport(\\\"user32.dll\\\")] public static extern bool ShowWindowAsync(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);';$win32 = Add-Type -MemberDefinition $sig -name Win32 -namespace Win32Functions -PassThru; $win32::ShowWindowAsync($_,2)}}\"");

I found your post because I was looking for others who use chatgpt. This was made with chatgpt. The window minimizing is not instant and takes ~1.2s to work. 

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

@Too Long23393079qrki – The following script will run IrfanView:

/*
Run IrfanView from Photoshop.jsx
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/add-final-step-to-action-macro-script-minimize-photoshop-window/m-p/13616016
*/

runIrfanView();

function runIrfanView() {
    var os = $.os.toLowerCase().indexOf('mac') >= 0 ? "mac" : "windows";
    if (os === 'mac') {
        alert("This script is only intended for Windows OS!");
    } else {
        try {
            var progPath = "C:\\Program Files\\IrfanView\\i_view64.exe";
            var progPathOpen = File(progPath);
            progPathOpen.execute();
        } catch (e) {
            alert("Error!" + "\r" + e + ' ' + e.line);
        }
    }
}

Information on saving, installing and running scripts is here:

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

Once installed into the Presets/Scripts folder, you can record it as a step into the action from File > Scripts using a relative name (suggested for use on multiple PCs).

If you alternatively use the File > Scripts > Browse... command, the full absolute path to the script will be used instead.

[jefbr]

Have you tried creating a droplet?

In a nutshell: it wraps a photoshop action or script in an exe file on which you can drag&drop files or folders.

If Photoshop is minized when the images are dropped on the droplet, it tends to stay minimized.

You might be able to drag & drop your images from irfanview onto the photoshop droplet...

Fingers crossed. 🙂