Install Actions in Photoshop Elements 7 on XP

Installing Actions in PSE 7 on XP

After you finish, click here if you’d like to view your actions by category in Photoshop Elements 7.

Installation Path:

• Start Menu
• My Computer
• Local Disk (C:) (This could possibly be a different letter, but is usually C and most likely will be your computer’s root directory.)
• Documents and Settings
• All Users
• Application Data (If you don’t see this, it’s probably hidden.  Go to Start/Control Panel/Classic View/Folder Options/View and select Show Hidden Files & Folders)
• Adobe
• Photoshop Elements
• 7.0
• Photo Creations
• Photo Effects (Depending on the action, you might choose a different folder to store it in.  This choice will affect the way you access the action in PSE 7.)

Installation Technique:

1. Make sure PSE 7 is closed.
2. Download action files from source website to your computer. I usually download to my desktop and then cut and paste the files to the appropriate folder (the Photo Effects folder in this case).
3. You should have one file ending in the .ATN suffix and one ending in .PNG. Each file should have exactly the same name, except for the suffix. If the names are different, right click on one of them to rename to the name of the other.  (PSE will automatically create a thumbnail JPG file from your PNG.  You do not need to supply any JPGs.)
4. If you have a .PSD file instead of a .PNG file, open the PSD in PSE 7 as you would any other image. Go to the File menu, select Save As, and change the Format to PNG.
5. Copy the files into the appropriate folder of the installation path above, if you haven’t already.
6. Open PSE 7 and open an image.  Look at the Effects Palette, usually on the right side of the screen. If the Effects Palette is not visible, go to the Windows menu and click on Effects.
7. Click on the double arrow above the Show All box and select Show Names.
8. You might see your new action now.  Look for a thumbnail that looks like the PNG file you copied into the Photo Effects folder. (You can always open this PNG like any other image in Photoshop to see what it should look like in the Effects Palette.) This thumbnail will have the name of the action below it.
9. If you can’t find the new action, click on the Filters button.  This is the first button on the left under the word Effects.  Then click again on the Photo Effects Button.  You really should see the action now.  And if you do, stop here!  You’re finished!
10. If you still don’t see your new action, navigate to the 7.0 folder in the path above. Rename the ThumbDatabase.DB3 to anything you choose. You could add today’s date or “version 1″.
11. Open the Locale folder that is in the same 7.0 folder. Open the en_US folder and rename the MediaDatabase.db3 file following the same method used in step 6. (Rather than renaming ThumbDatabase and MediaDatabase, you can actually delete them if you are comfortable with that, or cut them and paste somewhere safe until you know that PSE is working fine.)
12. Open PSE 7. The opening process will be quite slow as the two databases are being rebuilt. Open an image.
13. Look at the Effects Palette and click on the Photo Effects button (3^rd from the left under the word Effects).  In the drop-down menu to the right of the Photo Effects button, select Show All.
14. You should see your new action now.  If not, click on the Filters button and then on the Photo Effects button again.
15. If you still can’t find the new action, see Gotchas section below.
16. To run the action, double click on the thumbnail. Make sure an image is open and enjoy!

Possible Gotchas:

• If the new action is not in Effects palette after restarting Photoshop, restart your computer.
• If the thumbnail for the new action does not work when you double click it and there is a blank thumbnail with the name of the action under it, the names of your .ATN file and the .PNG are probably incorrect. Go back to the Photo Effects folder and make sure that the names are exactly the same except for the suffix.
• If you get the error messages “Could not load the actions because the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop.” followed by, “Could not complete your request because there is not enough memory (RAM).”, you probably have two thumbnails in your Photo Effects palette. One should work, but the other will produce these messages. To correct, navigate to the Photo Effects Folder. Look for two JPEGs associated with this action. One will be suffixed with .thumbnail and one will not. Delete the file that does not have .thumbnail in its name and repeat steps 7 – 14.  Note that Photoshop Elements will automatically create the file ending in .thumbnail.jpg from the PNG and you should not need to add a JPG yourself.