Actions in Photoshop

[Praki]

Hello:

Looking for some help and guidance. I am somewhat familiar with using layers and curves, levels and CR .... though on a scale of 1 - 10 I am more in the 3 - 3.5 range regarding expertise with PS CS3 in general. I downloaded an action (it is .atn file) that sets up a standard work flow for editing pictures. I have been looking for instructions on Adobe PS help for how to load this action and use it. What I want to do is to be able to  open a .PSD image and take it through the action. The .atn has some groups each dealing with one part of the work flow (e.g. local corrections, noise reduction, sharpening etc.).

Can you give me some pointers on how to load and use this .atn file or give me links to where I can learn about it? Simple explanations or steps will work best for me!

Thanks.
Praki.

[Mark D Segal]

Save the action you downloaded to your desktop or some other easy to find folder in your documents. Open Photoshop. Click open the Actions panel. Open the Actions context menu by clicking on the little menu button to the upper right of the Actions panel. Scroll down and you'll see a command for Load Actions..........  . Click on it. It will open a window accessing your hardrive folders. Scroll to where you downloaded the .atn file. When you've found it, highlight it, then click "Load". This will post the Action to your Action panel. Note, this is how it works for CS4. I believe it's essentially the same process for CS3, though I've stopped using that version so I don't recall if there are any significant differences.

[Praki]

Save the action you downloaded to your desktop or some other easy to find folder in your documents. Open Photoshop. Click open the Actions panel. Open the Actions context menu by clicking on the little menu button to the upper right of the Actions panel. Scroll down and you'll see a command for Load Actions..........  . Click on it. It will open a window accessing your hardrive folders. Scroll to where you downloaded the .atn file. When you've found it, highlight it, then click "Load". This will post the Action to your Action panel. Note, this is how it works for CS4. I believe it's essentially the same process for CS3, though I've stopped using that version so I don't recall if there are any significant differences.

Mark:
Thank you very much. You instructions have been very helpful.
Praki.