Editing Actions outside of Photoshop

[charamella]

Hi,

I have 17 actions each containing multiple saves in different sub-folders ( I basically have to save files in 102 different folders) and that has to be repeated in 40 different folders. Since I do not see myself opening each one in Photoshop to edit the "save to" path 4000+ times, is there a way I could edit that path outside Photoshop? I tried a Hex Editor but I could not figure how to change the path since I could not find it in the script...

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance

[Michael_L_Hale]

You should be able to edit the actions in the Photoshop GUI. Just double click on the step you want to edit. Any changes you make will be recorded.

You may also want to look at Xbytor's extools. One of those scripts converts actions to XML and back. You may be able to edit the save path that way

[xbytor2 · Accepted solution]

In xtools there are two scripts that will help:ActionFileToXML.jsx and ActionFileFromXML.

You can do search&replace on the paths in XML using whatever tools you like.

Doing this on 17 action files is left as an exercise for the reader. If they're all in the same action file, it's trivial.

-X

[charamella]

Thanks Xbytor2! That is exactly what I was looking for!

Although when I try to run the ActionFileToXML.js script I always get a "bad path error" and it won't run. I've tried using relative and absolutes paths for the .atn file, do you have any idea why it would say that?

thanks!

[xbytor2]

Have you tried simply converting the .atn file to .xml and back, without any changes?

If that's not working, there's a bug. The simplest thing to do is send me an action that's failing (to xbytor at gmail dot com) and I'll get it taken care of.

If that is working, send me you're modified .xml file and I'll figure out what's wrong with it.

[xbytor2]

This was resolved via email.

The action in question was recorded in PS6, which the converters do not support. PS7 and later should be fine.

-X

[alexade]

If you make a mistake when recording an action, don’t panic. Once you’ve stopped recording the action, you can return to a command and double-click it to open the dialog box that contains incorrect settings. Make your changes and close the dialog box. The changes are saved in the action. You can remove a statement from an action by dragging it over the trashcan icon at the foot of the Actions palette.

To add a step, click where it should appear in the action and click the Begin Recording button. Record the missing commands and, when you’re done, click the Stop Playing/Recording button.