Time Saving Tip: How to Make Actions in Illustrator

The actions panel in Illustrator is an absolute must know, must use tool! Any process can be added as an action, whether it’s the process of how you’ve edited your text, an effect that you’ve added to shapes and design elements, or you can even purchase actions that other designers have created to quickly add effects to your designs.

See our Illustrator tutorial section for more great tips!

Step 1 - Create your design to apply the Action to and open the Actions Panel

Open a new document by selecting File > New and create your design without the effects you want to apply. I am using the font Manasco from Font Bundles (note: when using text, select Type > Create outlines to convert your text into shapes before creating/applying actions). Once you have created your design, open the Actions Panel by clicking Window > Actions. Within the Actions Panel, you will see there are various pre-installed actions that you may find useful.

Step 2 - Create a new Action

To create a new action, start by creating a new set, essentially a new folder for this particular action. Select the folder icon at the bottom of the Actions panel, name your Action Set, then select OK.Once you have done this, you can create your new action within your set by selecting the Create New Action icon to the right of your new set icon (see screenshot). Name your specific action and in these settings you can also apply this action to a Function Key, for example, when you want to use this action, you can set up the shortcut to F1.

Whenyou have named your action and are happy with your settings, select Record.

Step 3 - Record your Action

This isn’t a timed recording, it will only take into account everything you click during the recording period. Therefore, step-by-step apply your settings to your design to achieve your end result. Then, when you have completed your effects, select the Stop recording button at the bottom of the Actions panel (see screenshot). You will see that each effect you have applied within the action will appear within the Action Set.

Step 4 - Apply your action

Now that you have created your action, test it to make sure it works by selecting your design, select your new action and then selecting the play button on the actions panel.

Your action will have played out and should look something like this.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, we think you would love to learn how to How to Create SVGs in Adobe Illustrator to enable your design for unlimited scaling for digital, print or even to cut on a cutting machine.