Installing a New Script: Adding File Names to PDF Presentation

One day, my boss, Scott Kelby, called me into his office and said that he's gotten a lot of questions about why PDF Presentation doesn't include file names on the images. The problem is that it leaves your client wondering which photos they like best, as they have no way to tell you other than by numeric order (which can be difficult and unreliable). We talked about how cool it would be to create a script to do it, and that is exactly what I did after that meeting.

Step One

Download the script I created that adds file names to all of the images you put into a PDF presentation from www.scottkelbybooks.com/speedclinic. Unzip the file and place the script somewhere on your computer where you can easily find it (the Desktop is always a good place).

Step Two

Navigate to your Photoshop CS2 Presets folder and look for the Scripts folder within it. On the Mac, go to Hard Drive: Applications:Adobe Photoshop CS2:Presets:Scripts. On a PC, go to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Presets\Scripts. Place the script that you downloaded in Step One into this folder.

Turbo Boost

Moving a layer mask from one layer to another layer just got easier with Photoshop CS2. Try just clicking-and-dragging the layer mask to whatever layer you'd like in the Layers palette.

Scripting in Photoshop is not new to CS2. That's why you need to be careful when you install a script. Be sure that it is meant for the version of Photoshop that you're using. You don't want to spend a bunch of time installing a script that won't run in your version of Photoshop. This script happens to be for Photoshop CS2 only.

Step Three

Before Photoshop will recognize this script and show it under the File>Scripts menu, you'll need to restart Photoshop. So, if you have Photoshop running, shut it down and restart it. If you don't have it running, then go ahead and fire up Photoshop CS2 now. When you do, choose File>Scripts and you should now see PDF Presentation with File Names. The script is installed and ready to use.

Be careful when installing a script because all of the other CS2 applications, including Bridge, can be scripted, as well. You'll want to make sure you're installing a script that is meant for Photoshop and not for Bridge or one of the other applications.

Turbo Boost

Quickly put multiple layers into a Group (formerly a Layer Set) by selecting them in the Layers palette and pressing Command-G (PC: Control-G).