Running Actions

The most basic way to run an action is to select its name in the Actions palette, and then click the Play Selection button at the bottom of the Actions palette (Figure 17.2). However, there are other ways to run actions that may sometimes be more useful, such as the following:

• To play just one step, double-click the empty area to the right of a step name.

• To start an action from one of the steps in the middle, select the step where you want to begin playing back the action and click the Play button; the action plays from that step to the end.

• To run an action in one click, choose Button Mode from the Actions palette menu (Figure 17.3).

• If an action has a function key shortcut, press its shortcut. You can see function key shortcuts when the Actions palette is in button mode or by double-clicking the name of an action if button mode is not enabled.

• To exclude some steps from being run as part of an action, click the expansion triangle to the left of an action name, and then disable the check mark for the steps you want to exclude.

• To be able to specify dialog box options for a step when running an action, enable the Toggle Dialog On/Off button for that step in the second column of the Actions palette.

Figure 17.2. Click the Play Selection button to run an action.

Figure 17.3. When the Actions palette is in button mode, you can run an action by clicking once, and you can see the function key shortcuts.

When you see "(Selection)" in the name of a built-in action, that means you must make a selection before running the action.