So, I know nothing about creating an action. I'm looking for an action, or even an explaination to make an action that will copy/paste all the pics that I have just opened up in Phosothop onto/into one psd for layer work. Or, any Photoshop ability that will do this. Or, am I stuck doing it by hand each time?

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Hi, AS Try file- automate- contact sheetII. In colums and rows put 1 and 1. I haven't tried this myself, so I hope it works for you. Cheers

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Just in case you actually copy/paste by hand, there is an easier way. Arrange you open pics side by side with Window/Documents/Tile...then use the Move Tool and drag one pic into the other and release. - Bjorn

AS, i'll try and come up with something later tonight...

I take it what you want to do is take all the image files (say a bunch in a folder) and add them to ONE file (each image on it's own layer...)

if so, i'll try tonight...

if not, stop me...

retrocity

yup retrocity, that's it. I have done the drag and drop but two things, sometimes the pic doesn't drop perfectly ontop the next, and I have to fidlle with it...and I would still like to find an automated way, lol. I'll experiment with the contact sheetII. Not lazy, I just do this a LOT. Thanks for the help/info! AgentSmith

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I suppose, theoretically, that if the 'duplicate layer' command is scriptable AND is capable of moving the different files to one and the same document with a given name, it should be possible. On the other hand, if you are on Mac, this might be something AppleScript could do. I recognize this situation. Carefull placing is the thing that makes me use the mentioned 'duplicate layer' command that you can find in the layer palette. I am afraid the contact sheet with 1 row and 1 column will not work, because it makes a new document when the selected folder contains more images then can be put in the given rows and columns. Another problem is that it changes the size of the pictures. But the beginning of what happens is what you want. But I am not sure if the Contact Sheet script is the same as an action. I think I will do a google search, because now I am wondering myself. Maybe I'll be back...

I use PC. Thanks. AS

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Another tip: open Photoshop...switch to Image Ready...go to File/Import/Folder as Frames...then switch back to Photoshop...Voila! Opens a complete folder as one layered file. - Bjorn

Well, found some excellent resources on how to create plastic, glass and burning type. But the thing with actions is, probably, that it is concentrated on activities within a document. I have seen actions that use an external, newly created, document, but those are most of the time simple sidesteps. Somewhere I encountered something about VB scripting that is more about doing thinks with different document. But the URL started with parners.apple.com so that will not prove to be very usefull for this. I am very interested in what RetroCity can come up with. I guess there is a very good chance the dragging and dropping will go on... The good part is, you can drink coffee while doing it...

AgentSmith, hopefully this helps... You can automate this by using an Action and the Batch feature in PS. I tested this in vers6 as well as 7 but can't say for sure if it'd work in ver5 or lower. Anyway try this:

1. Place all your images in a folder
2. Open your first two documents and recoard the following steps as an action:

• Select All (Ctrl+A) (this is on the second image)
• Copy (Ctrl+C)
• Select image one (making this one active)
• Paste (Ctrl+V) (this adds the second image to a new layer)
• Save (Ctrl+S) this saves the change to the first image)
• Select image two (making this one active)
• Close (Ctrl+W) image two (stop recording your action)

okay now you have an Action that will add a new layer to your open file. To automate this revert your "image one" to it's original state (only one layer).

3. Go to FILE-->AUTOMATE-->BATCH
   Select the Action you just created and the SOURCE folder of all your images and click OKAY
4. Here's an example of my test...

Let me know if you have any problems...
:)
retrocity

Thanks for the tip Bjorn .. works great. Never tried that before.

Nice tip!

AgentSmith, re your post 5, the way to get the layers to line up properly isn't to drag+drop, it's Select All > Copy > Switch documents > Paste. Don't know how to automate it though :)

Sorry I'm taking so long to get back to this... I made the action as you showed above in such great detail, thank you. And, of course I can't get it to work. Now, when I first open up my Photoshop(7), what do I do next? It just keeps coming up with the dialogue, "The object "next document" is not currently available" AS

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Wait...I may have it... Okay, if I open up Photoshop, open up my first two pics, and then run the action, I will get that same dialogue once, but I just click "continue", and as far as I can tell...it works! AS

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Woohoo, yup it works!! I do still get that dialogue, but big deal. It even takes the pic that ultimately becomes the "background" and duplicates that, which I love, because that's what I always do anyway. (Now, all I have to do is figure out a way for it to finish off by deleting the "background" pic, lol.) Oh, Thank You! (my fingers thank you, too!) AgentSmith

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AS, you can run the Action from the File menu by selecting Automate --> Batch and in the popup dialog box select the Action "Multi-Pass" to run. Then all you'll need to do is select the folder that has all your images in it and you shouldn't be prompted. Glad to help... :) retrocity

Oh, that's exactly what I did in the begining. One pic will come up, I get the dialogue, and I can click continue all I want, which I have to do multiple times. All it will do is open each .bmp file and save it a single layer .psd file. But, if I do it like above (post #15), open the first two pics, then run the Automate>Batch>Mine>Multi-Pass...then it will give me the dialogue just once, and then it will work like I want it to. AS

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Hummm... that's odd. Maybe i'll experiment with images in different formats. I just did this with PS native files (.psd), maybe there is something i've overlooked... i'll let ya' know what i come up with. :) retrocity