Can you rearrange thumbnails/actions in the effects palate PSE7?

Thought I'd try and get the whole question in there so if anyone doesn't know, they don't have to waste time opening this thread.

I've got all my actions in the effects bin but it seems that the predone actions in PSE 7 are all at the top and then mine are scattered with others at the bottom. Is there any way I can move them around to put mine on top? I've tried just clicking and dragging and that doesn't work. I also went into the file itself and moved things around and it didn't carry over to the effects bin either. Any ideas?

I have PSE6 so 7 might be a little different, but in the effects area there are 4 different icons to click on - filters, layer styles, photo effects and all. I usually just click on photo effects and then choose show all from the drop down menu and it shows the actions I've loaded and they are in alphabetical order by how the atn file is named. I don't like to click on the all icon cause then they are all the way at the bottom like you said. I don't know of a way to change that unless there is something in the preferences that can be changed.

Well, you can put them in categories so that you can use the drop down menu to only show the actions you want it to show. However, it's time consuming. I tried to find better instructions on how to do the category thing, but here's how I do it.

Get to your photo effects file. Find a metadata file that you know is good (such as one of the original Adobe files). Copy and save onto your desktop. Then click on the file to open it. Where the name of the file is, replace with the exact name of the action you are creating the metadata for. You'll have to do this twice (name=name). Then go down to the category, and change that to the category you want to create (i.e. I just did a bunch where My4Hens was the category). You'll have to do this twice, too. Then save the file, close it. Go back to where it is on your desktop and change the name of the metadata file to be the new action name. Copy and paste into your photo effects folder. Repeat until all of your self-installed actions have a metadata file.

Tip -- I usually have about 3 windows open when I'm doing this. I click on the action for which I am creating the metadata file and select rename. Instead of renaming, I just copy the name of the action, then click off so that it hasn't changed. Then when I go into the metadata file, I can just delete the original action name and paste in the new action name. This whole thing only works if you get the action name exactly the same. However, now when I open PSE, I can go to the drop down menu and just see my My4Hens actions, or my CoffeeShop actions, or whatever I want to choose in my drop down. It's so much easier than scrolling through everything I have installed.

I think I originally figured out how to do all this from reading at Hummie's World, so you may want to browse over there. Have I mentioned it takes forever to do this?!?

Yes, you can organize, and it will take you some time. To organize effects, styles, etc. requires XML files. Sometimes when you purchase actions, these are provided, and sometimes not. I haven't yet upgraded to PSE 7, still with 6 while deciding about making the leap to the Big Program and Lightroom, but the same rule applies to PSE 7.

I've organized my actions with XML files in the metadata file like Kim - for visual, it ends up looking like this for my CoffeeShop actions... and for the time spent, I think you recoup it later on...


I wrote or edited XML files and added them to the metadata file. Kim's post has the goodies, and I think I have instructions somewhere for 6.0 with the file list tree if you want them, just PM me.

Heard great things about Hummie, and here's the link to the tutorial at Hummie's World - for PSE 3.0 through 7.0... HTH!

Thanks so much!! This seems like a daunting task!! I don't have that many actions but I would like to have my new ones grouped. I may try this tomorrow.

Warm fuzzies abound! Thank you for the kind words about my site. Please do let me know if I can be of assistance at any time.