Scripting Modify an Action with a script??

[Jarbilon]

Hi everyone

I was wondering if a script can modify an existing action?
Short story -
I need a script that go through a specific Action, and deletes every step of "Use hand" in it.

Long story -
My work with photoshop is to edit Interior design Photos, hundreds of photos each week. some of the work includes removing objects such as electric sockets, wires, wall-cracks, dirt, rebuild broken tiles and so on...
Many of those photos comes with 2 versions - Natural light and artificial lights. therefor I don make the same work twice, so I make an action, which records all of the stamps, healing, brushes I perform on the Natural light version, then I play this temporally Action on the With-lights version. BUT! when I record the Hand tool, the Action-Play goes crazy (you can try it), so I am not using the hand tool to navigate, instead I'm using the scrolling bars on the side of the screen, and its not as convenient as Hand tool.

My photoshop version is 20.0.7

If you know of such a thing I'll be super appreciating

Thank you

 

[MarshySwamp]

I think that it would be easier just to delete them, drag the steps to the trash/bin symbol in the Action panel, or CMD/CTRL click multiple steps and delete in one go.

Yes, one very special script can convert an action to XML, you then edit the XML in a text editor and then convert the XML back to ATN file, however YMMV:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ps-scripts/files/xtools/

 

[Jarbilon]

Hi MarshySwamp,
Thanks for your reply. however I make those actions dozens times a day, and on each Action there can be more than 40 'Use hand' scattered all over the Action, so deleting them or make an XML -> edit -> convert to action back again.... is not an option. Now I'm just not using the Hand tool.

 

[MarshySwamp]

Not recording the hand tool is the best option, just use the scroll bar, navigator panel or keyboard to navigate.

 

[Jarbilon]

Not recording the hand tool is the best option, just use the scroll bar, navigator panel or keyboard to navigate.

That's what I do...

 

[MarshySwamp]

That's what I do...

Then you don’t need to delete the hand tool then!

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @Jarbilon
To be honest, I might not understand your workflow exactly so I may not know if my fix will work for you or not.
If you are already avoiding the hand tool to avoid recording in an Action, there is another way to do this without using the scrollbars (same if you want zoom to not record).
You just use the navigator panel and move you display window within the document and also zoom using the features in the Navigator Panel. It won't record movement of the display window nor changes in zoom.

I am not experienced at recording Actions with recording Tools turned on so do not know all the ins and outs and issues that are associated.
So hope this helps yet not sure it will given it is more of a blind spot form me.
John Wheeler

In addition - I do not have access to your version of Photoshop and tried this on Photoshop 2023