Keep in mind the following guidelines when recording actions:

• You can record most—but not all—commands in an action.

• You can record operations that you perform with the Marquee, Move, Polygon, Lasso, Magic Wand, Crop, Slice, Magic Eraser, Gradient, Paint Bucket, Type, Shape, Notes, Eyedropper, and Color Sampler tools—as well as those that you perform in the History, Swatches, Color, Paths, Channels, Layers, Styles, and Actions palettes.

• Results depend on file and program setting variables, such as the active layer and the foreground color. For example, a 3‑pixel Gaussian blur won’t create the same effect on a 72‑ppi file as on a 144‑ppi file.  Nor will Color Balance work on a grayscale file.

• When you record actions that include specifying settings in dialog boxes and palettes, the action will reflect the settings in effect at the time of the recording. If you change a setting in a dialog box or palette while recording an action, the changed value is recorded.

  Note: Most dialog boxes retain the settings specified at the previous use. Check carefully that those are the values you want to record.

• Modal operations and tools—as well as tools that record position—use the units currently specified for the ruler. A modal operation or tool is one that requires you to press Enter or Return to apply its effect, such as transforming or cropping. Tools that record position include the Marquee, Slice, Gradient, Magic Wand, Lasso, Shape, Path, Eyedropper, and Notes tools.

  If you record an action that will be played on files of different sizes, set the ruler units to percentages. As a result, the action will always play back in the same relative position in the image.

• You can record the Play command listed on the Actions palette menu to cause one action to play another.

Recording actions works similarly in Photoshop and Illustrator.