Now that we've finished stepping through the Photo Corners action and we know which steps we want to change, we're ready to edit the action! There's a couple of steps we'll need to edit in order to change the colors the action uses, and there's also a couple of steps we can probably get rid of altogether, or at least disable.

Whenever you're editing an action, it's always best to make a copy of the action first and edit the copy, rather than editing the original. This way, you'll always have the original if you need it. Also, since the action we want to edit is found in one of the action sets that installed with Photoshop (in this case, the Frames action set), it's a good idea for us to create a new action set and then place the copy of our action inside the new set, rather than making changes to any of Photoshop's default settings.

Creating A New Action Set

The first thing we need to do, then, is create a new action set. As we've already learned, an action set is really just a folder of sorts that actions are stored in. It's important to note that all actions must be placed inside action sets. If you create a new action, or make a copy of an existing action, it must be placed inside an action set. You can have a single action in a set or hundreds of actions, it makes no difference. All actions must be placed in an action set. I know, it's a rule and no one likes rules, but there's just no getting around this one.

The easiest way to create a new action set is to click on the New Action Set icon at the bottom of the Actions palette (it's the icon that looks like a folder):

Photoshop will pop up the New Set dialog box where you can enter a name for your new action set. I'll name my action set "My Actions". Of course, you can name your set whatever you like:

Click OK once you've entered a name for your set to exit out of the dialog box. If I look at my Actions palette now, I can see my new action set, "My Actions", listed below the other action sets:

At the moment, we have a new action set with absolutely nothing in it. Let's make a copy of the Photo Corners action, which is inside the Frames set, and place it into our new set.

Moving Action Sets Inside The Actions Palette

To place a copy of the Photo Corners action inside my new "My Actions" set, I'm simply going to drag the action from the Frames set into the "My Actions" set while holding down my Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key, which will create a copy of the action set as I drag. To make it easier to drag the action from one set into the other, I'm first going to move the "My Actions" set above the Frames set. To move action sets around and reposition them inside the Actions palette, simply click on an action set, then keep your mouse button held down and drag the set to its new position. Here, I'm dragging the "My Actions" set to its new location directly between the Image Effects and Frames sets. Notice the black horizontal line that appears between them indicating where the action set will be placed:

Release your mouse button to drop the set into its new location:

Copying And Dragging An Action From One Set To Another

With my "My Actions" set now moved into place, I'll twirl open the Frames set and click on the Photo Corners action to select it. I'm going to drag this action from the Frames set into the "My Actions" set, but I don't want to move the original action. I want to create a copy of the original and move the copy into the "My Actions" set while leaving the original alone. To move the action and create a copy of it at the same time, I'll hold down my Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key and drag the Photo Corners action into the "My Actions" set. Once again, a black horizontal line appears indicating where the action will be placed:

I'll release my mouse button, and I now have a copy of the action, which Photoshop has named "Photo Corners copy", in the "My Actions" set:

Renaming An Action

"Photo Corners copy" doesn't seem like a very interesting name to me, and certainly not very descriptive. Since I'm hoping to improve on this action by editing it, I think I'll rename it to something like "Improved Photo Corners". To rename an action, simply double-click directly on its name in the Actions palette and type in a new name. Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done:

I now have an exact copy of the original Photo Corners action, which I've renamed "Improved Photo Corners", sitting in the new "My Actions" set that I created. We can now make any changes we want to this action without affecting either the original action or the Frames action set.

Want an easier way to learn Photoshop? Download our tutorials as Print-Ready PDFs!