Text and animated titles

The Text panel puts words over your video. Pick Plain Text to style the words yourself, or one of 27 animated titles that come in, hold and go out on their own. Each lands at the playhead on the Text lane of the timeline, and you type your own words on the canvas.

#Add a title

1. In the editor, move the playhead to where the title should start.
2. Click Text in the tool rail on the left, or press T. The Text panel opens beside the canvas.
3. Rest the pointer on a card to watch it play over a frame of your video.
4. Click a card, such as Keynote. The title lands at the playhead with the card's sample words, "Think different.", and is selected: it shows on the canvas, and its clip on the Text lane reads "Keynote · Think different.".
5. Double-click the title on the canvas, or press Return. Its words are selected, so type to replace them. Press Esc or ⌘↩, or click elsewhere on the canvas, when you're done.
6. Press Space to play it.

A new title lasts 3 seconds, or 4 for Big Type, Kinetic, 3D Roll and the word collages. Near the end of the video it gets whatever time is left.

#The title styles

The panel lists Plain Text first, then the animated titles. Rest the pointer on a title card for its tooltip: a fuller version of the line below, ending "Click to add it at the playhead." The same description shows under Preset in the inspector once the title is on the canvas.

#Word collages

Under the Word collages heading at the bottom of the panel are titles that lay your words out as a collage, with a few big "hero" words and the rest smaller around them.

#Type and change the words

• On the canvas: double-click the title, press Return with it selected, or click Edit text (the first button in its toolbar). Each line you type is a line on screen, so Return starts a new one. Finish with Esc, ⌘↩ or a click elsewhere.
• In the inspector: type in Text, under Text Animation.

If you clear every word, the title keeps its old words rather than disappearing.

#Place and size a title

A title covers the whole frame and places its words on a 3 × 3 grid.

• Drag the words on the canvas to move the title.
• Drag a corner handle to make it bigger or smaller. The new Size shows under it as you drag.
• Pick one of nine spots, from Top left to Bottom right, in Position in the inspector or in the toolbar's grid menu.

#The title's toolbar

A selected title has a toolbar above it on the canvas. From left to right:

#Style a title in the inspector

The inspector on the right has two tabs for a title: Preset and Animation. Click a section's heading to fold it.

The Preset tab, from the top:

Delete at the bottom removes the title.

A few of the Typography settings need a word:

• Accent is the second colour some titles use, such as Typewriter's caret and Line Reveal's rule.
• Effect lays a look on the letters: None, Glow, Neon, Gradient, Chrome, Outline, Long shadow, Glitch or Liquid. Effect amount sets how strong it is.
• Max width is how wide a line can get before it wraps, and Margin is the space kept from the edges of the frame.

The Animation tab holds the title's Keyframes, a Start animation for the whole layer under Animation, and Timing: Start time, Duration, Shows from and Shows until.

#Plain text

Plain text is styled like a caption: it has the caption looks and their controls, and no animation style of its own.

1. Move the playhead to where the text should start.
2. Add the text in one of three ways:
   • In the Text panel, click Plain Text. It lands in the middle of the canvas.
   • Right-click an empty part of the Text lane and choose Add Text. It lands in the middle of the canvas.
   • Right-click an empty part of the canvas, such as the background around your recording, and choose Add Text. It lands where you right-clicked. The canvas menu doesn't open while the video plays.
3. The text layer lasts 2 seconds and is selected, with the inspector's Text content box ready to type in. It starts with the words of the last text or caption you selected, or with "Text".
4. Type your words in Text content, or double-click the text on the canvas.

The inspector's Text tab has these sections:

Its toolbar on the canvas has Edit text, Size (8 to 300), Bold, an alignment button that steps through left, centre and right, and Text color, then the keyframe, crop, Z-index, wand and More buttons a title has.

#Change when it shows

Titles and text sit on the Text lane of the timeline, under the captions.

• Drag a clip along the lane to move it, or drag either end to make it start later or end sooner.
• Type exact times in the Animation tab, under Timing.
• An animated title plays its intro at the start of its clip and its exit at the end. A longer clip holds the words on screen longer; a very short one squeezes the intro. Speed in the title's own section speeds both up or slows them down.

When titles overlap in time, a small arrow appears beside the lane's name. Click it to open the lane into rows. Edit on the timeline covers trimming, copying and the right-click menu.

#Tips and limits

• Press ⌘D to duplicate a selected title right after itself, then change its words.
• To switch a title to another style, use its preset menu instead of adding a new one: the words come with it.
• While a title is selected and the playhead is in its intro or exit, the canvas also shows its finished look faintly, so you can place it before it has come in.
• A title belongs to the scene under the playhead when you add it, and moves with that scene.
• Adding and styling text and titles uses no credits.

#What's next

• Draw: arrows, circles and lines that draw themselves on.
• Overlays: shapes, pictures and boxes on the canvas.
• Stickers and cut-outs: buttons, badges, emoji and transparent pictures.
• Transitions: move from one scene to the next.
• Edit on the timeline: move and trim the layers you add.