Photoshop CS Timesaving Techniques For Dummies [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Working with Droplets

A droplet is an action that is encapsulated into an executable program. You can put droplets directly on your desktop or save them in a convenient folder. If you drag an image file or a folder full of files over a droplet, the droplet executes, playing the action on the files. (If Photoshop isn’t open when the droplet is activated, the droplet automatically opens Photoshop.)

Because a droplet is a standalone program, you can pass it to other Photoshop users and use it on other computers, even cross-platform.

Creating a droplet

The first thing you need to do before creating a droplet is to record the action that you will use when creating the droplet. If you need a refresher on recording actions, turn to Technique 8. After you record the action, follow these steps to create a droplet:

Choose File>Automate>Create Droplet.

The Create Droplet dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 9-5. You use this dialog box to name the droplet, set the location where the droplet is saved, and set how files are handled when they are modified by the droplet.





Figure 9-5: The Create Droplet dialog box specifies which action is encapsulated in the droplet.






Click the Choose button in the Save Droplet In area.

Select a folder where the droplet will be stored in the Save dialog box that opens and type a name for the droplet in the File Name (Windows)/Save As (Mac) text box. Then click Save.







Tip

The sample droplets that come with Photoshop are stored in the Photoshop CS\Samples\ Droplets\Photoshop Droplets folder of your Photoshop installation.






In the Play area, use the Set drop-down list to select the action set containing the action you want to use.





Select an action using the Action drop-down list.





Use the Destination drop-down list to select how the modified image files are saved and/or stored.

You can select from





None: Select this option to leave the modified image files open in Photoshop. If you select this option, skip to Step 8.





Save and Close: Select this option to save the modified files and close them, leaving them in their original folder. If you select this option, skip to Step 8.





Folder: Select this option to save the files and move them to a new folder. If you select this option, click Choose and use the Browse For Folder dialog box (Windows) or Choose a Destination Folder dialog box (Mac) to locate the folder where you want to store the files. Also, when you select Folder, you can also rename the files.







In the File Naming area, select the options that you want to use to rename the image files.

Using the drop-down lists, select up to six options (refer to Figure 9-3).

If you select one of the Serial Number options, enter the first number in the Starting Serial # text box (Photoshop automatically counts up from there).





Put check marks in the Compatibility check boxes.

This step ensures that the renamed files work on any computer.





Decide how you want errors handled by choosing an option from the Errors drop-down list.

Sometimes errors occur when actions are played on image files. For instance, the action specifies a specific image size minimum and the image is not large enough.





Select Stop for Errors from the Errors drop-down list to halt the Batch command. A dialog box displaying the error appears and the batch operation is aborted; you need to set up the entire batch process again.






Select Log Errors to File to send error reports to a text file. The batch processing continues even if an error occurs. If you choose this option, click the Save As button to set a folder location and name for the error log text file.







When you’re sure all the settings are correct, click OK.

Photoshop creates the droplet and stores it in the folder you selected in Step 2. Figure 9-6 shows several droplets on the Windows XP desktop.




Figure 9-6: After you create a droplet, you can place it on your desktop for easy access.

Using a droplet

After you create a droplet, using it to modify batch-es of files is simple. From your desktop, locate the folder containing the droplet (if you haven’t placed it on the desktop) and set that window aside. Next, locate and select the files or folder of files that you want to modify. Drag the selected files or folder on top of the droplet. This action triggers the droplet and it goes to work, modifying the files and saving them in a new folder if you specified that when creating the droplet.

When working on Web graphics in Photoshop’s sister program, ImageReady, you can create actions using commands just like in Photoshop. But, you can also create droplets that are used to help you quickly optimize Web graphics, compressing them as much as possible for quick downloading.

Turn to Technique 57 to find out more about optimizing Web graphics and creating droplets using ImageReady.