Actions via the Effects Panel -- Installing

BuckSkin,  I'm assuming you are talking about PSE 7. Here are the instructions. 

NOTE:  Before installing any action make sure that . . .

- Elements is closed.
- Your folder options are set to show hidden files and folders. -- Show hidden files

1.  Copy the .atn, .png, and .xml files and paste them in the photo effects folder at the end of this path.

C:\ ProgramData\ Adobe\ Photoshop Elements\ 7.0\ Photo Creations\ photo effects

2.   Delete the MediaDatabase.db3 file located at the end of this path.

C:\ ProgramData\ Adobe\ Photoshop Elements\ 7.0\ Locale\ en_US (or your locale)\ MediaDatabase.db3

3.   Launch Elements. The program will rebuild and update the MediaDatabase.db3 file. Be patient; this process may take a few minutes.

4.   In the Effects panel, click on the 3rd icon from the left (Photo Effects). Next, click on the tiny downside arrow to bring up the drop-down menu. The action you installed will be there.

NOTE:

Not all actions come with an .xml file. If an action has an .xml file, the action will be available in its own category (under its name) in Effects>Photo Effects. If an action doesn't have an .xml file, the action will be available in Effects>Photo Effects> . . . in the "Show All" category.

You are most welcome!

PS CS2 was released the same year as Elements 4; PS CS4 was released the same year as Elements 7.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop_Elements

Elements doesn't have this batch capability when running actions.

Installing Actions in Photoshop Elements - xml files for grouping actions in the Effects Palette

When I created the Action in CS2, the instructions I was following suggested to always first "Take a Snapshot" as the first step in an Action; I did so; now, when I run the Action in Elements 7, before it gets started, I get a warning "The Command "Make" is not Currently Available"; I click "Continue" and it goes ahead with the Action process.

You are getting this error message because your action has a command which Elements doesn't "understand". The Snapshot is a Photoshop-only feature; it's not available in Elements. Actions to be run in Elements need to be recorded specifically for this program, i.e., with commands that it "understands". You can ignore the warning and click on the Continue button but, depending on the action, the final results may not be what you had in mind.

Thanks; I figured it was the "Snapshot" that was causing the warning in Elements; I will remake my Action minus the "Snapshot"

It is my understanding that when an Action has an xml file, it can display in it's own category instead of getting lost among thousands.

As for the absence of the Batch Action ability in Elements, if I can figure a way to employ saving the files as PSD in the original folder, as this is the first process that gets done to images, I will first open the images in CS2, batch run my Action, then load the PSDs in Elements to go on with the show ----- providing this ability can be employed in an Action.


>>>Update EDIT>>>:   I have fine-tuned my Action such that it does exactly what I intended with one minor and one not so minor hitch.

Minor hitch - Due to the fact that I need to make one image-specific adjustment to each image in the batch, I set the Action to pause and show the Levels box such that I make my Levels adjustment and when I click Okay, the Action continues. The minor annoyance is that - and this must be a CS2 thing - prior to the Levels box appearing, a Levels layer naming box appears, causing me to have to click Okay at which point the Levels box will then appear.
This is just a minor annoyance, but it is one more completely unnecessary manual step in the flow of things; I have renaming the Levels layer incorporated in the Action anyway.

Not so Minor hitch - I have figured out how to include saving the completed image as PSD and closing it automatically; however, no matter what angle I have tried, instead of saving the image into the folder where the original resides, it insists on saving the image in the particular folder that it saved to in the initial creation of the Action, regardless of which folder the image originated from.

If I cannot get it to save the finished product back to the folder where the particular image originated from, I will just make a specific landing place that is easy to keep track of and let the Action-created images always land there and then move them to where I want them. 

Thank you for posting that !

Did you buy the commercial version ($49.95), or did you get the freeware/demo version ?

I just had a look at their site and my understanding is that, if you also have Elements XXL, then Actions XXL will play anything that PS can, plus do several things that PS cannot.

Here is the page where you can request access to the Download Center where all the freeware and demo packages are:

thepluginsite.com/download/form.htm

After a lot of reading, it still is not clear to me whether the programs work with all versions of Elements.