Graphics Tips

Photoshop Quick Tip #2: Action and Shape Sharing

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For this Quick Tip, I've decided to explore a question asked in the MacMerc Forums:

To answer the question as it was asked, Photoshop CS Actions and Custom Shapes are stored in you user Library folder under Preferences and in the Adobe Photoshop CS Settings folder. You will see several files in this folder that hold your Actions, Brushes, Custom Shapes and Gradients among other user customizable settings. You will only see a Custom Shapes preference file if you have actually created your own custom shape and added it to the Custom Shapes palette. If you haven't done that, then you really don't have anything you need to transfer over anyway. If you do see a file titled "CustomShapes.psp" or "Actions Palette.psp", you can copy those over to another computer into the Adobe Photoshop CS Settings folder and your custom shapes and actions will have been transferred.

Unless you have saved an entire set of totally custom shapes and are copying them to a machine with no custom shapes, I do not recommend this method, because you will obliterate any custom shapes that have been added to the preferences of the computer to which you are copying. You will be covering over the computer's own set of custom shapes with the current collection that is active on the source computer. I much prefer to save out my custom shapes and then append another set with the custom shapes I've created as the need arises. This also allows me to share my shapes with others online without having to send them every shape I have. The same goes for Brushes, Swatches, Gradients, Styles, Patterns, Contours or Tools presets.

Here's how I save out my custom shapes:

Go to the Edit menu and choose "Preset Manager..." Now hit Command-7 to set Custom Shapes as your Preset type. Click on one of the custom shapes you'd like to share and Command-Click on any more you'd like to accompany it. Hit the "Save Set..." button to save your shapes in their own private set. What you will have saved is a file that you can add to any other Photoshop CS Custom Shapes collection by clicking "Load..." from the Preset Manager and choosing the set you saved. The same steps will work to save out Brushes, Swatches, Gradients, Styles, Patterns, Contours or Tools presets but not Actions.

Here's how I save out my actions:

Open the Actions palette. Actions are saved out in sets which are displayed in the Actions palette as being contained inside a "folder". All the actions that you want bundled up and saved out in your set need to be enclosed in a folder all to themselves. So, if that isn't the case, create a new set by either clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the Actions palette, or by choosing "New Set..." from the Actions palette pullout menu. Name your set and the drag the actions you want to save out into that set in the Actions palette.

Once you have a set created that holds nothing but the actions you want to share, select your new set by clicking the folder that encompasses it and click open the Actions palette pullout menu and choose "Save Actions..." Name the set and save it where you'll know where to find it later (using the Photoshop Actions folder in Photoshop's Presets folder would be slick). Now when you want to add that to another Photoshop CS install, just send the file over to the other Mac, open the Actions palette pullout menu and choose "Load Actions..." Find your set on the new machine and load away.

That's it. If you have any ideas for Photoshop Quick Tips you'd like to see, take a cue from pandamouth and post a question in the MacMerc Forums. Otherwise, you'll just have to make do with whatever I decide to teach you. ;D