Making 'Actions'

For those of you just starting out in Photoshop, a couple of tips before you get going. When you first open an image, please please please try working in a non-destructive manner. By that, I mean making a duplicate of your original 'background' layer. Command 'J' does this. And use your adjustment layers, they let you go back and tweak them individually rather than continually adding new layers. And don't forget to group your work in 'Folders', command 'G' will put a set of layers in to a particular folder that you can then re-name however you see fit. It's just a good way to keep organized if you go back to an image after a couple of weeks, or months.
One of the first things I did with PS was to learn all the keyboard shortcuts and how to make actions. If you work in a way that you are consistently using the same menu items over and over, simply make an action for it. For example, if you always convert an image to CMYK, follow these steps:
1. Go to the 'Actions' palette, click on 'Button Mode'
2. Return to that same drop down window and click on 'New Action'
3. Enter the name of the action ie: CMYK
4. You have the option of entering a function key and a color for this action
5. Hit 'Record'
6. Go back to the drop down window in the 'Actions' palette and click on 'Insert Menu Item'
7. A dialog box will come up that says 'menu item' and 'none selected'. Ignore this!
8. Go to 'Image', 'Mode', 'CMYK Color', Then click OK in that dialog box
9. Return to drop down window in 'Actions' palette and click on 'Stop Recording'.
10. In drop down window, click on 'Button Mode', and your action will be there, probably at the bottom.

I know this may seem like a lot of steps, but it will probably only take a minute or 2 to do this, and it will save you so much time.
Let me know if this helped at all and happy Photoshopping.
David