Keep Track of Editing History in Photoshop CS

Have you ever created something that was just wonderful, then forgot how you did it? Or someone asked you how you did something and you couldn't remember all the steps? Wouldn't it be great if you could have a complete history of every editing step performed on an image? With the History Log in Photoshop CS, now you can! Besides being helpful for your own use, it can be used to record time-tracking information for client work, to create a legal record, and for training purposes.

The History log is disabled by default. To turn it on, go to Edit > Preferences > General (In Mac OS, Photoshop > Preferences > General). In the lower section of the dialog box, click the check box to enable History Log. You can choose whether you want the information embedded into the file as metadata, stored in a text file, or both. If you pick the text file option, you will need to click "Choose..." and tell Photoshop the name and location of the file where you want the data saved.

Under "Edit Log Items" you have three choices:

1. Sessions Only - only records when Photoshop is opened and closed and when each file is opened and closed. Useful for time tracking.
2. Concise - records Sessions information, plus the text that appears in the history palette.
3. Detailed - records all of the above, plus the text that appears in the actions palette. This essentially tracks the complete history of editing for the file.

History data can be viewed in the metadata panel of the File Browser, or from the File Info dialog. Be careful storing the history log in the metadata--it can increase the files size and reveal editing details that you'd prefer to remain undisclosed.