Apr 27 2009
Photoshop Quick Tip 2– Action and Shape Sharing
For this Quick Tip, I’ve decided to explore a question asked in the MacMerc
Forums:
pandamouth
writes:
Hi,
I want to load my custom actions and shapes onto a different computer. (OS X.3, photoshop CS)
Where are they stored?
Thanks!
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