Why won't align layers work in action?

[Brett Arrowood]

I'm trying to create an action for watermarking many many files. The difficulty is that each file is different in size so I want the watermark text to be centered in the image window. I've created the text and selected it, then using the move tool I select align vertical centers and align horizontal centers. It works great while I'm recording the action, but does not work when replaying the action. Is this one of the commands that cannot be recorded in an action? But from reading the manual it says that the move command can be recorded.

Is there another way to position the text to be centered in each image regardless of the image size?

Thanks for any help.

Brett

[brett arrowood]

YrbkMgr,

Thanks so much for your reply. I was going crazy trying to figure out
why everything worked using the buttons when doing it manually, but not
when saved in an action. I would like to know why Adobe chose to ignore
the buttons in actions, and more importantly why they did not have the
good sense to put that in their documentation.

Thanks again for helping me with this riddle.

Brett

[YrbkMgr]

Brett,

I pulled my hair out when I thought that I was recording it, and my layers weren't aligning. Then I tried the "other" way and it worked.

Just like the movement of celestial bodies, the reasons Adobe didn't include the options bar buttons (or documentation) are predictable, but not necessarily understandable for the casual observer. <grin>

Peace,
Tony

[brett arrowood]

Tony,

Do you mean, trying to get Adobe to provide accurate documentation is
like trying to move planets? <grin>

I'm sure that building these great applications must be immensely
complicated work - certainly tens if not hundreds of thousands of lines
of code go into each program. But I do wish that Adobe would be much
more careful about documenting these little idiosyncrasies. It could
have saved me many wasted hours of frustration.

Anyway, as I often say to my wife "if it was easy anybody could do it".

Thanks for your help.

Brett

[YrbkMgr]

Brett,

Couldn't agree more. You know how many times people say "Read the manual" or "Read the Helpfile"? It'd be nice if this was actually IN the manual or the helpfile.

However, in Adobe's defense, they are not like other companies in that Photoshop is so powerful that in this case, there's a workaround - it would suk if it didn't record it from the menu as well. Also, they plug "holes" in the manual with about the best user support forum I've ever seen. Finally, they are pretty well committed to listening to users and implementing changes.

IMO, the TOUGHEST job is to document your program with clear, well communicated manuals/help files.

Peace,
Tony

[Trevor Morris]

Tony/Brett:

And for the record, Adobe is indeed already aware of this problem.

[Trevor Morris]

Righto, carry on then ;-)