Variables in Photoshop Actions

[rpstewart]

Am I asking too much here?

I've got a Velvia simulation action that I want to hack slightly which creates the velvia image as a duplicate of the original. Now 90% of the time I want to save the velvia version with the original filename suffixed with _velvia. The action names the original "Velvia Copy" so when I save it I have to manually type the full new filename in each time.

What I'm wondering is whether it's possible to set the name of the duplicate image in the first step of the action to the original name with the _velvia suffix?

[matty]

if you open a picture in CS, open the action pallet and then click the arrow next to the name part, then double click it, it will open that bit of the action, and you can rename from there.

make sense???

[rpstewart]

I was hoping for something a little more automatic, I'm a professional lazy sod you see ;)

[Marcel]

stewart, if you want, send me the action (marcel@talkphotography.co.uk), and I'll have a go at changing it for you :)

[rpstewart]

Thanks Marcel, I'll fire it over to you when I get back from work.

[Marcel]

Stewart, I've had a tinkle with what limited knowledge I have, and it seems the best I can get out of it, is to have the new filename the same as the original but with " copy" added.

so picture.jpg
becomes
picture copy.jpg

I'll go googling to see if there's a way to change " copy" to "_velvia" for one specific action, but I can't promise...

What *is* possible though, is that you can use third party software to batch rename files afterwards.

IE Let Photoshop save them all with " copy" attached the end.
Then use a nifty little free utility I use called CKRename.
Just basically set the parameters so that any file with " copy" in it is renamed to "_velvia", select the files you want to process with a shift click and hit go. 10 seconds ;)

I know its a pain and defeats the object, but from what I see nowhere mentions being able to put conditions on any of the filename dialogs like that in Photoshop.

[rpstewart]

I can cope with " copy" as a suffix and rename afterwards.

Thanks :clap:

[Marcel]

Ill resave it and mail it back to you then :)

[Marcel]

Mail sent :)

[Marcel]

So did my editing work then? :)

[rpstewart]

Yeah, spot on. Thanks

[tulioate]

Hey, i have the same problem...
could you email it for me too?