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If I open a ping file in PS6 I can move the object within the layer to a given position using the Free Transform tool and typing in X & Y points in the property bar. If I open a similar sized ping file with the object in a different position from the first file, typing in the same X & Y points will move the object to the same position as the first file. Which is what you would expect. This works because the Transform tools bounding box wraps itself around the object rather than the whole layer and the X & Y points are based on the document not the object. All this works fine and makes sense but, here's the problem...
If I create an Action to move an object to a specific X & Y position and apply the Action to a batch of files, using the Automate function, it goes wrong. What happens is the Action moves objects an identical distance in the same direction based on the distance and direction applied when the Action was recorded. Example...If, when recording, an objects X position was at 200px and I moved it to 50px (to the left) the object will have moved 150px to the left. When I batch process a group of files, instead of placing all the objects at an X position of 50px, all objects are instead moved 150px to the left. The Action applies the distance and direction moved, not the position moved to.
Does anyone have a solution to this, or at least understand why this is happening.
If i'm understanding you correctly here Sark, you want certain objects to be a fixed 50px from the left of the document edge, no matter what size the document is? Is that right?
If it is... then try this:
Record your action to select ALL on the target layer, then Align to the left edge of the document. Then Deselect.
Next, move the object 50px to the right.
This will result in your target objects being a fixed 50px from the left edge, no matter what size the document is.
Tell me if i'm confused here! [righton] [bustagut]
If i'm understanding you correctly here Sark, you want certain objects to be a fixed 50px from the left of the document edge, no matter what size the document is? Is that right?
More or less. [righton] The documents are all the same size, but the objects are at different positions in different documents.
Your method is a slightly different approach to my own as I did not select or align before using the transform tool. Will try this tonight.
Do I still need to use the Transform tool to move the object 50px or is there another method of moving a specific distance.
Have now got this sorted. I had three issues which kept me up till 1pm last night resolving, but have now got everything just perfect.
One problem was caused by the method of exporting the files from Flash. Two related to PS. For some reason the Align buttons on the property bar function, but don't record. Fortunately the same buttons in the Layer menu do record. I also had an issue with Free Transform (hadn't read your Shift + arrow key tip then) which I couldn't solve, but worked around by avoiding Free Transform altogether.
What I now do is Align to center and then trim the canvas width to twice the size I need the objects center to be from the edge of the left side of the document....easy.
My intention is to use a gradient Alpha channel selection to apply different levels of blur to an object depending on where the object is in the document. Aligning and trimming to centers is ideal because it works perfectly even when some objects are larger after blurring.
All I have to do now is find a Lens Blur plugin for PS6 (??) or, upgrade to CS (??????????????????) .
Thanks again for the help, it really is appreciated. 8))
Have downloaded the demo and will give it a try tonight. Not too expensive with current exchange rates and looks to be quite straight forward in function.
Tried a couple last night but didn't like them. One, Lenscare by Friscluft, was so disabled as to make the demo almost pointless. Noise was added and performance deliberately slow, you couldn't save the result so why go to that much trouble?
One question. I haven't used plugins before, do third party filters Action record just like standard filters?
I actually didn't know the answer to your question so I opened a sample image and recorded a simple action using VariFocus. It worked just fine although if you were to use it on many images you might want to activate the modal control so the plug-in's dialog comes up and you could adjust your settings for the individual images.
The method I will be using is such that hopefully I won't have to use the dialogue. All the files will have the same effect applied to them. Each object is in a different position in each file and hopefully will recieve a different level of blur determined by its position in the document.
Just to clarify, can I use the same effect on multiple files, batch processed, without have to make changes to the Varifocus dialogue each time a file loads.
The answer is yes. If you just run the action without the modal control activated, the filter will run with the same settings which were in place when the action was recorded originally.
Free Transform "Actions" Positioning 
or, upgrade to CS (??????????????????) 
.
Linear Mode
