Creating a droplet from an action

A droplet is a small application that applies an action to one or more images that you drag onto the droplet icon . You can save a droplet on the desktop or to other location on disk. To get clearer view you can try it by download Convert to JPG droplet to see how it work.

To creat droplet, actions are the basis for creating droplets–you must create the desired action in the actions palette prior to creating a droplet. (See Create and Recording actions.)

To create a droplet from an action:

Create droplet windows is very similar to create photoshop batch you can see also Using the Photoshop Batch command.

1. Choose File » Automate » Create Droplet.
2. Click Choose in the Save Droplet In section of the dialog box, and select a location to save the droplet.
3. Select the desired set and action from the Set and Action menus.
4. Set Play options for the droplet:
   • Select Override Action “Open” Commands if you want Open commands in the action to refer to the batched files, rather than the filenames specified in the action. Deselect Override Action “Open” Commands if the action was recorded to operate on open files or if the action contains Open commands for specific files that are required by the action.
   • Select Include All Subfolders to process files in subdirectories.
   • Select Suppress Color Profile Warnings to turn off display of color policy messages.
   • Select Suppress File Open Options Dialogs to hide File Open Options dialogs. This is useful when batching actions on camera raw image files. The default or previously specified settings will be used. For information about using droplets to open camera raw image files, see Creating an action to open camera raw image files.
5. Select a destination for the processed files from the Destination menu:
   • None: to leave the files open without saving changes (unless the action included a Save command).
   • Save and Close: to save the files in their current location.

Note: If you selected the Save and Close option, you can select the “Override Action “Save As” Commands option.” This option causes the droplet to override any action Save As commands and saves the file back to its original filename in its original folder.

6. Select Folder to save the process files to another location. Select Override Action “Save As” Commands if you want the Save As instructions from the droplet instead of the Save As instructions in the action. If you select this option, the action must contain a a Save As command, because the droplet will not automatically save the source files. This is useful for saving documents with options not available in the droplet (such as JPEG compression or TIFF options). No matter how you’ve recorded your action’s Save As steps (with or without filename specifications), if this option is selected, the file is saved to the folder and the filename in the droplet.

Note: Deselect Override Action “Save As” Commands will save the files processed by the droplet in the location specified as the destination in the Create Droplet dialog box.

Tip: You can record an action that saves with a specified filename and folder. If you’ve done this, and have Override Action “Save As” Commands off, the same file will be overwritten each time. If you’ve recorded your Save As step in the action without specifying a filename, the droplet will save it to the same folder each time but will use the filename of the document being saved.

7. If you chose Folder as the destination, specify a file-naming convention and select file compatibility options for the processed files:
   • For File Naming, select elements from the pop-up menus or enter text into the fields to be combined into the default names for all files. Elements include document name, serial number or letter, file creation date, and file extension. Starting serial number specifies the starting number for any serial number fields. Serial letter fields always start with the letter “A” for the first file.
   • For Compatibility, choose Windows, Mac OS, and UNIX to make filenames compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and UNIX operating systems.
8. Select an option for error processing from the Errors pop-up menu:
   • Stop for Errors to suspend the process until you confirm the error message.
   • Log Errors to File to record each error in a file without stopping the process. If errors are logged to a file, a message appears after processing. To review the error file, open it in a text editor after the batch command has executed.

Using droplets to process files

To use a droplet, simply drag a file or folder onto the droplet icon . If the application you used to create the droplet is not currently running, the droplet launches it.

Creating droplets for use on different operating systems

When creating droplets that may be used in both Windows and Mac OS, keep the following compatibility issues in mind:

• After moving a Photoshop droplet created in Windows to Mac OS, drag the droplet onto the Photoshop icon. Photoshop will launch and update the droplet for use in Mac OS.
• When creating a droplet in Mac OS, use the .exe extension to make droplets compatible with both Windows and Mac OS.
• References to filenames are not supported between operating systems. Any action step that references a file or folder name (such as an Open command, Save As command, or adjustment command that loads its settings from a file) will pause and prompt the user for a filename.

Related Article:

• Using Photoshop Action
• Using Photoshop Batch Command
• Open camera raw image files action
  

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