Name Action

Make sure your Actions panel is open. Window > Actions

If you have never worked with actions, you will see several there from the default Photoshop actions. You can delete these since they are always able to be reloaded. Just highlight the “Default Actions” folder in the panel, then click on the 4 horizontal lines at the very top right of the panel. Choose delete. If you would like to test them out before deleting, just in case you find them useful, then by all means. I will wait.


You done? Good! Let’s continue.

In the actions panel, at the very bottom, click the folder icon to add a new Action Set.

This will create a new folder in your actions panel. Name it “Tag Names” (or whatever you want, really lol)

Now that you have a set, you need to create an action to go in the set. Make sure your Set is highlighted every time you want to put a new action in it.

*** New Action Prompt ***
(ignore that line until you are prompted at the end of the tut)

Click the + sign at the bottom beside the folder icon. This will add a new action. I named my first one GIF since it will be for GIF tags. You can even set a color and a “hot key” to your action. The hot key (or combination) will run the action every time you press it. I did not set one for mine since I don’t need it.

Once you hit the Record button, you will see that the circle in the bottom of the action panel has turned red. This means your action is recording. But don’t worry! You aren’t timed. You can take as long as you want, as long as you don’t hit the undo button.

If you need to stop your recording for any reason, be sure to hit the square button at the bottom of the actions panel. It will save you a whole lot of headaches. I accidentally forgot to stop an action one time. I let that thing run for a couple of days… that… was a mistake. My computer slowed down the point of crashing several times because it just couldn’t take the amount of data being recorded. I ended up needing to completely restore Photoshop to the factory settings. I lost a lot of stuff. Don’t do that. ALWAYS stop your recording.

Ok, warnings aside. Your action is in record mode, right? Great!

*** Continuation Prompt ***
(ignore that line until you are prompted at the end of the tut)

Right click the thumbnail of your text layer. (The icon with the T on it)
Choose “Select Pixels.”
Select > Deselect

That may seem like a pointless step, but it will become clear in a minute. Don’t skip it.

In your Character Styles panel, click on the “None” option. This will clear any font styles from your layer. THIS IS IMPORTANT.

It will turn your font into a tiny plain text. This makes sure your font doesn’t carry over into your next tag. IMPORTANT.

Double click on the font thumbnail in your layers panel.

Hit the backspace key and type in a new name. I know it’s tiny, so you will need to make sure you don’t typo.

Click on that check mark at the top of your Photoshop window to commit the text.

It’s so tiny, isn’t it…? lol

Back to your Character Styles panel.

At the bottom of the Character Styles panel, there is what looks like an “Undo” button. This button will clear any styles associated with the font layer. Click it. You see the + beside the “None” went away. Great!

EDIT NOTE: I have had a couple of people tell me that they don’t have this “undo” option to reset the font layer. There IS a workaround, but it requires a couple of extra steps. Stop your action from recording for just a minute.

Open you Character panel. Window > Character

DO NOT EDIT YOUR FONT LAYER. Instead, use the Character panel to make your font 1px larger. (This is a separate panel from Character Styles.)

DO NOT change anything the Character Style panel, however. After you did that, you will notice that the reset button has now become usable.

Start your action recording again. Click the reset button and continue with the tut.

Next, click on the “Name Original” entry.

Oooo yes! Your font is back at the size it’s supposed to be! Perfect. If it didn’t work. You will need to stop the action, delete it, close the tag without saving, and start again. Something didn’t go right and you will need to start over.

If it looks good, then continue!

Select > Reselect

This adds back the selection around the original name you had. You want this! This will keep your new name lined up with the old name to make sure the tag keeps its integrity.

Layer > Align Layers to Selection > Vertical Centers
Layer > Align Layers to Selection > Horizontal Centers

Select > Deselect

File > Export > Save For Web (legacy)…

I am saving an animated tag, so I used the same save settings as I use in the animated tutorials.

Save this file onto your desktop with the title the same as the name. This will make sure you keep up with whose tag belongs to whom.

Now go to File > Revert

You can hit the stop button at the bottom of the Actions panel.

It is important to go back to the original tag state so nothing gets saved onto your tag.

YAY! This is your first name in your tag list! Your actions panel should look like this:

Continue onto the next page if you think everything looks right.