this tip saved me a lot of time in photoshop. if you find yourself repeatedly having to go to the menu in photoshop to bring up a dialog and you want to tweak the settings on the dialog every time you open it, then this is a lifesaver.
click the record a new action icon on the actions palette and name your action whatever you want.
![](https://hughomalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1.png)
then when the dialog launches give your action a useful name. i want my action to launch the gaussian blur dialog every time i use it.
![](https://hughomalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/2.png)
then from the actions palette menu, click ‘insert menu item’
![](https://hughomalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/3.png)
![](https://hughomalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/4-408x1024.png)
this dialog will appear
![](https://hughomalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-08-at-11.20.59-AM.png)
then from the menu select the dialog you want to appear each time you play the action. for me it’s the gaussian blur dialog.
![](https://hughomalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-08-at-11.21.39-AM-1024x894.png)
click ok on the dialog to save your action
![](https://hughomalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-08-at-11.40.02-AM.png)
now every time i play the action it brings up the gaussian blur dialog without me having to click through the menus.
![](https://hughomalley.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-09-08-at-11.22.35-AM.png)
hope that saves you some time. let me know if it helped you!
by Hugh O'Malley, Beauty Photographer and Videographer based in Shanghai