We get email from time to time with questions about some of the actions posted on this site.  Occasionally they are related to problems people are having with an action.  If you are experiencing problems send us an email and we will try to resolve the problem.  We will post common problems and solutions here.

Try the action out on the 'Before' image provided for each action first.  This will help you determine if you are going to have problems or not.

1. When I run the action, the image ends up in reverse. (example; bread from Submarine Sandwhich looks like a big hunk of bread with your text as a hole cut in the middle.)

This problem has been associated to a couple of actions including Submarine Sandwich and Balloonz.  We have found the problem to be associated with the Channel Options sticking to what was selected last time a new channel was added.  Even though our action adds the new channel with selected options, Photoshop seems to ignore it.  Here is a quick workaround until we can figure out a solution.

1. Create a new RGB image in PhotoShop and go to the Channels Palette.

2. Click on the 'New Channel' icon at the bottom of the Channels Palette to add a new Channel.

3. See if your new channel comes up as white instead of black. If it does, click on the little arrow on the left of the channels palette (the channel options) and select 'New Channel'.  In the New Channel dialog box, make sure that 'Masked Areas' is selected and not 'Selected Areas'.  Click OK.

4. Click the new channel icon again and see if the new comes up black this time.  (All the new channels should from this point).  Run the action again.  It should work this time.

2. When I run an action I get an error message "Warning: No pixels were selected." and the action quits.

This could be caused by running the action on text that is too small.  If there is any fine detail work (such as highlights) using a channel, the channel mask could end up being blank.  When the actions goes to load the channel, no pixels are selected.  Try running the action on larger text and that may clear up the problem.