I just finanlly ordered Lightroom and CS3 and have a question about scripts and actions. I understand what the difference is between the two, but what are the advantages/disadvantages of each. I am planning on buying a set, but not 100% clear on which I should get - actions or scripts.

The way I see it is Scripts are faster, but you are unable to edit individual layers (since there are no layers)

Actions are slower (by how much I do not know) but allow you the ability to fine tune and tweak each individual layer.

Thoughts,
Michael

I would think the performance of each would be about the same. Scripts are source program files written in a programming language. These scripts are read and interrupted by Photoshop's scripting facility when used. The big difference between Scripts and Action is scripts are programs and can use logic. Actions are a recording if sequential Photoshop's steps. All Photoshop steps can not be recorded. Things like Brush strokes can not be recorded. Action can have stops added and steps can be made interactive. Action are recorded in absolutes. For instance if I set the rectangle marquee tool to 33.3333 % wide and 33.333 % high and make a selection it will make a selection the is 1/3 the current with and 1/3 the current height. However what is recorded is the coronets of the upper left corner and the lower right corner not a %. So if you use the action on different sized images only the images that are exactly the same size of the image the was used to record the action will have a selection 1/3 the size of the width and height. So if you want to cut up an image of any size into 9 equal sized pieces you can not do the with an action but you could do that with a script.

Anything that can be done in a action can be done by a script. Action can not do tings that can be done in a script however an action can record the use of a script. Therefore you can sort of have an action that uses logic. For example you use a DSLR the takes 3:2 Aspect ratio image. You shoot both Landscape and Portrait orientated images and the camera orientation sensor automatically rotate portraits images. You would like to crop these to a 5:4 Aspect ratio and print 10x8 prints. You could create an action for landscape orientated images and a second one for portraits. If you don't want to have to hand select each type you could create on action the would use a simple script as its first step. The simple script would just rotate images that were portrait orientated 90 degrees and leave landscape images as is. The action would the crop a print all the images as landscape orientated images.