What are actions and how would I use them?

[Honeydew]

Someone once told me that "actions" were a great help to them. What are they and how would I go about using them? I did a search in the PE5 and its not helping me to find out what actions are. Are actions used in PE5 and Photoshop? Thanks for your help.

[Wags]

Actions automate lengthy processes. They can only be written in Photoshop - but fortunately for PSE users many of them can be used in Elements.

There is a good description of what they are, what they can do and how to use them at about.com (http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/qt/actions.htm)

If you want to try out some actions, check out PanosFx (http://www.panosfx.com) and Graficalicus. (http://www.graficalicus.com/index.php) just be sure that you are in the section for Elements before downloading.

Hope that helps!