Action to crop but not repeatedly

Question

I'm making a series of thumbnails. Open image, use crop tool, select an area, choose "Crop" from the Image menu, sharpen, save.
I want to select an area of the image -- a different area each time! -- then launch an action to crop, sharpen and save. But I can't record the first step. If I start recording before using the crop tool, the action incliudes the specific area, and will always crop that area of any image. If I make a selection and then try to setart recording, nothing ahppens. In crop mode, Photoshop is completely frozen; all you can do is crop or not crop. You can't start recording an action.
Any way to do this?

Answer 1

wvmsteele wrote:
I'm making a series of thumbnails. Open image, use crop tool, select an area, choose "Crop" from the Image menu, sharpen, save....In crop mode, Photoshop is completely frozen; all you can do is crop or not crop. You can't start recording an action.
Tried a couple quick tests and it looks like you can get what you want if you do the initial crop using the Rectangular Marquee tool, not the Crop tool. Start recording the action after you make the intial selection, with the first step being the Image > Crop command.
In my tests (CS5), if I selected different areas with the Rectangular Marquee tool and ran the action, it preserved the area every time.
Starting a crop with the Rectangular Marquee tool is sometimes better, for example, when you need to crop to an aspect ratio without altering the dimensions, or in this case. Starting with the Crop tool is better when you need some of the options in the Crop options bar, like the Perspective option.