Add-O-Matic 11!

Get all your Actions, Shapes, Styles, Brushes and other Photoshop Goodies into Photoshop Elements 8-11 in seconds! Drag-Drop-GO!

[Now with Lightroom preset support, too!]

Graffi's Add-O-Matic! THE ONLY AUTOMATIC ADD-ONS INSTALLER FOR PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS AND LIGHTROOM (Windows XP / Vista / 7)

Are you having trouble trying to figure out where to put all your Photoshop Elements extras? Are you not sure where to store those actions, shapes, styles, plug-ins, presets, and all the other goodies you've accumulated? Does creating the necessary .xml files give you a headache?

Then Graffi's Add-O-Matic is your best friend! It will do all the sorting for you - all you have to do is drag your extras into the grey drop box, click the "Go!" button, and it will sort them and organize them and put them away for you, right where they belong in Photoshop Elements for Windows!

Add-O-Matic will correctly install:

* Actions (*.atn files): Actions will be installed to a separate menu item in the Effects palette. Choose the Photo Effects section, and use the drop menu to choose "Add-O-Matic". Your actions will be here with a generic thumbnail. You will be prompted to upload a unique thumbnail to use instead of the generic AOM thumbnail; if you choose to do so, it will be displayed as shown in the screenshot to the left.

If you also added an associated metadata.xml file, it will display the action effect in whatever drop menu the metadata.xml file designates.

Actions will also appear in the Action Player in Guided Edit mode.

In Photoshop Elements 11, Actions are also placed in the Actions palette and can be loaded and unloaded at will using the menu there. Note that actions will play in Photoshop Elements only if they are compatible with available Photoshop Elements commands.

SPECIAL NOTES ABOUT ELEMENTS ACTIONS

To refresh the Effects palette, click AWAY from Photo Effects into the Layer Styles section, then back into Photo Effects. Eventually your new action effects will appear as the database discovers, catalogs & displays them. To finalize getting everything into place, close and restart Elements after adding several actions.

* Custom Shapes (*.csh files): Custom Shapes will show up in the Shapes section of the Content palette. (*NOTE: you'll have to choose the "Show All" option from the drop menu to see added Custom Shapes). They will also be installed to the pop-out menu in the Custom Shapes Option Bar, when the Custom Shapes tool is selected. In addition, Custom Shapes are also used in conjunction with the Cutout tool and can be selected from that menu as well.

* Layer Styles (*.asl files): Layer Styles will be installed into a new menu item in the Effects palette. Navigate to your added layer styles by using the right-side drop menu while in the Layer Styles section of the Effects palette. Layer Styles will also be installed to the Custom Shapes Option Bar, in the Style section (use the drop menu to navigate to your new styles) as well as the Text tool's options bar at the top of the work area. This allows you to add a style to a shape or text as you create it, rather than adding it later.

* Plug-Ins (*.8bf only) (Vista /7 users must turn off Account protection)

* Brushes (*.abs files) Brushes will be found in the Brushes palette. (Keep in mind that some brush sets created with earlier versions of Photoshop / Elements may not be compatible with your version. A pop up will let you know if they aren't when you attempt to load incompatible sets from the brushes palette.)

* Gradients (*grd files) Gradients can be loaded from the drop menu of the Gradient tool's Options Bar at the top of the workspace when the Gradient tool is selected.

* Patterns (*.pat files) Patterns can be loaded when using the Edit>Fill menu command. Use the drop menu on this tool's dialog to select "Pattern" as type, and load the patterns you like from the triangle pop-out menu.

* Color Swatches (*.aco, .ase & *.act files) These will show up and can be loaded from the Swatches palette.

* Preset files: .cha (Channel Mixer presets) and .acv (Curves presets) in Elements 8, 9 & 10.

* Lightroom presets (*.lrpreset) will appear in the Add-O-Matic category within the Lightroom presets interface

Additional file support

* .xml files for Custom Shapes, Actions & Layer Styles The xml file must be named [name of action, shape or style].metadata.xml to be processed correctly by Elements.

*Improved error handling: Add-O-Matic now prompts if an unsupported file type is dragged into the drop box.

* A separate utility, Graffi's Database Rebuilder. This utility will quickly rename the internal databases allowing an easier rebuild should the need arise. All you have to do is launch it and click the "GO!" button. It will find the databases from whichever version of Elements you specify and rename them, allowing new databases to be created the next time you launch Elements.

Installing and Using Graffi's Add-O-Matic

If you select the shortcut options during install, it will create shortcuts on your desktop and/or in your Quick Launch menu. Also by default, it will create a menu item in your Start menu with shortcuts to run and uninstall the Add-O-Matic.

Click the Add-O-Matic icon to start it. You'll see a large gray box to the lower right side of the application panel. This is where you can drag and drop your supported add-on files - the "Drop Box". If multiple supported versions of Elements are found, it will add your extras to all of them.

ERROR MESSAGES?

If you inadvertently drag a non-supported file type into the gray box, the Add-O-Matic will let you know. A pop up message will tell you that the current file is not supported by Add-O-Matic.

Common errors include dragging a zip archive to the gray box without first unzipping it, or dragging a text file or a Word file into the grey box. Add-O-Matic will let you know about the error, and continue on to the next file. When Add-O-Matic turns the page for you, you can exit it and start Photoshop Elements. The add-ons you've added will be in the locations outlined above.

Be sure to allow plenty of time for the internal databases to discover, identify, and add the new items to the proper pallet or menu.