Adobe Photoshop CS - Recording Steps in the History Log - Task 2

How To Record Steps in the History Log in 

Adobe Photoshop CS?

There are so many options in Photoshop, you might get carried away and forget what you did when you try to recreate an effect. Or you might need to make notes of how to recreate a certain effect in Photoshop for your coworkers so they can do it on their own (and stop pestering you for once). Photoshop CS enables you to keep a log of all your digital imaging movements. You can manage your history log options in the General preferences dialog box. 

1. If you are a Macintosh user, select Photoshop ➪ Preferences ➪ General. If you are a Windows user, select Edit ➪ Preferences ➪ General. 

2. To keep track of the steps you take in Photoshop CS, select the History Log checkbox (see Figure 2-1). 

Figure 2-1: Turning on the History Log option 

3. Click the Metadata option if you want to save the history log information with the file you are working on. 

4. If you want to save the information to a separate text file, select the Text File option. 

Figure 2-2 shows an example of a history log.

note • Having a history log saved with your image can inflate the file size. The more you manipulate an image, the more actions get recorded.

5. To determine the location of the history log text file, click the Choose button to bring up the Save dialog box. Select a location where you want to store the text file and then click Save. 

6. If you want the history log to be saved both as metadata and as a separate text file, select Both. 

7. To specify the level detail stored in the history log, select Sessions Only, Concise, or Detailed in the Edit Log Items list box. 

Figure 2-2: An excerpt from the history log text file set to Concise 

8. When you are done, click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.

tip • Using the Detailed history log item is a good way to keep notes on how certain effects are created. Instead of writing out instructions by hand, you can have Photoshop write them to a separate text file. Then cut and paste the steps and email them to your Photoshop friends.

cross-reference • To learn more about keeping track of information associating with your digital images, check out Task 17 for attaching notes and audio annotations.