Creating Actions Part 3
Tip 1 The Power of Buttons!
Action Access
On the top right hand corner of the Actions Palette, there is a black triangular button. Click on it. 
From the drop down menu that appears, click on Button Mode 
Now your Actions Palette will look like this:
Every action is now a Single-Click-Button You no longer have to find the action, click on it and then go to the bottom of the action to click on the play button. By using the K & K Digital Advantage, you have taken task(s) that required clicking all over the program, utilizing various dropdown menus, typing parameters into dialogue boxes, on numerous images, . . . and reduced it to a single keystroke.
Tip 2 Batch Processing
What is Batch Processing? If you have repetitive actions that you want to apply to several or even hundreds of images, Batch Processing is a way of pointing an action at a folder and making it go.
To Batch Process images
- Go to: File > Automate > Batch, a dialogue box will appear.
(This is a partial view of the dialogue box and is sufficient for most basic processes that you will perform. For more advanced processing, refer to your Adobe or third party user's guide). - In the first box, Play drop down menus, select your set, and your process.
- In the second box, Source, select Folder from the drop down menu. Then Choose the folder that contains the images that you want the action to effect.
- In the third box, Destination, select the Folder and Choose the file where you want the images to end up when they are finished being processed.
- Click on OK
Tip 3 Pausing an Action
All this talk of actions is great, . . . if only an action were a globally efficient cure-all whenever it was applied. We all know however, that, all images have slightly different characteristics in regard to sharpness, tonality, contrast, saturation, and our own vision of what the final image should look like. While a particular action may be useful for many images there are times when it is necessary to apply minor (or at times major) tweeks to an image.
Examples: A black and white conversion action, no matter the method employed within the action can always use the individual adjustments in contrast and saturation.
A diffusion action usually needs adjustments to the diffusion layer before flattening.
An action for digitally blending different exposures of the same image requires adjustments in the layers.
To accomplish this pause during the running of an action we need to re-examine the actions palette. Notice that the palette below is in expanded and not button mode. Any time that you write or alter actions it must be in expanded mode.
On the left side of the palette are two sets of boxes. The checkmark in the first set of boxes indicates that the action is available for use on an image by clicking on the play action icon on the bottom of the palette. The Red or Gray tabs in the other boxes indicate a pause in the action. 
In the above example, I wrote an action to convert images to black and white simulating an image shot of Tri-X film, thus the name BW TriX
I started with an image open on the desktop, converted it to 16bit mode, opened the channel mixer, made adjustments to the image, flattened the image and converted it back to 8bit mode.
I knew that the same color channel adjustments do not work for every image so I placed a pause tab in the actions palette beside the step where I wanted to have an option to fine-tune the action for every image it was played upon.
The next time I play that action, the action will pause with the channel mixer dialogue box open, to let me make custom adjustments to the image. After I have made the adjustments I click on OK and the action completes.
A pause tab can be placed anywhere in an action that requires fine-tuning. Complicated actions may have several pause tabs dependent upon the customization you would like to do within the parameters you have created when writing the action.