PS CS4 save action that prevents file clobbering?

[Hahnium]

Hello:

Does anyone know of an action step or event script that will alert you to the existence of a file when using non-dialog save commands in actions?

Scenario:

Suppose I have a "Save" action that points to a specific folder, I then save an image titled XXX into a folder called IMAGES. Then either intentionally or accidentally I get a new (i.e. completely different) image called XXX that I edit and resave to IMAGES via the action. Right now, CS3 and CS4 actions with suppressed save dialogs do not alert you to the existence of a file in the target location. It just saves over it.

I am using function keys to trigger script steps since I have different routines based on image content so batching a directory is not preferred.

The ideal solution would be an "if file exists in path" step.

[Michael_L_Hale]

Because you say you use function keys to trigger script steps, I not sure if you are using actions or scripts. I don't think that you can do want you want with just plain actions.

It would be easy to check for an existing file with a script.

[Tom Ruark]

You will need to write a script to check if the file already exists.

Install the script listener plug-in. Record you save step and check the listener log file on your desktop.

You can then do a if ( File("fullpathtofile").exists ) { alert ('dont do that'); } else { ... do regular save here ... }

Another option would be to use a unique file name generator so you don't ever clobber a file.