How to Save an Action Set in Adobe Photoshop

Actions are steps that can be recorded in Photoshop. A series of actions can then be saved as an Action Set to automate repetitive steps when batch-processing images.

This feature works the same in Adobe Photoshop CS5, CS6, and CC versions.

1. In this example, I'll create actions for resizing images and then convert them to grayscale. Without any files open, go to Window > Actions.
2. In the Actions panel, go to the menu and select Clear All Actions.
3. At the bottom of the Actions panel, click the Create New Set button. Name the action set in the resulting dialog box.
4. Go back to the Actions panel menu and select Save Actions.
5. Actions are saved by default in the Photoshop > Presets > Actions folder. Review the options and click OK.
6. Open a file with which to record the action.
7. Go to the Actions panel and click the Create New Action button. In the resulting dialog box, give the action a name, then click Record.
8. The red button at the bottom of the Actions panel indicates that the action is being recorded.
9. Go to Image > Image Size. Set the sizing for the image.
10. Go back to the Image menu to Mode > Grayscale.
11. Click Discard in the resulting dialog box.
12. Go to the Actions panel and click the Stop Playing/Recording button.
13. Close the image file without saving changes.
14. To use the action set for batch processing, go to File > Automate > Batch.
15. In the dialog box that opens, select the Source and Destination folders. This option is useful because the processing will create copies of the image files, leaving the originals intact. Remember that warning message when the image was converted to grayscale? Make sure to check Suppress Color Profile Warnings so the batch processing doesn't stall. For File Naming, I've set it to use the file name, adding "_small-gs" to the end.