Text Objects

[JEB]

Hi,

Perhaps somebody can explain the rules of working with "text" in O&A?

I quite often use titles in some of my sequences and find it difficult to get consistency of size.

My usual approach is to create a title to the size I wish, then copy and paste to the next place a title is required, delete the contents and copy the empty object and paste that wherever else a title of that size is required and then edit each with the required wording. I have to do it in this manner as the "zoom sizing" in O&A Animation does not appear to be always consistent. I am aware of Parent/Child situation.

I often end up with what visually appears to be like sized titles but with different "zoom" values and yet both are independent objects.

If anybody can provide some definitive rules I would be much obliged.

I think I have in the past asked for this matter to be addressed in future issues but as that has not to date materialised, perhaps it is not considered necessary, in which case I must assume that I am missing something quite basic.

Cheers,

John

[jt49]

• Enter some text, first just a single line (take care that there isn't an empty second line)
  
• Choose a zoom value for this text: X
  
• Choose a line spacing value (positive or negative): Y
  
• Now type a number of lines: N (again take care that there aren't empty additional lines)
  

During this process the size of the letters remains invariant. The overall zoom value for text with N lines should be:

(N * X) + ((N - 1) * X * Y / 200)

Regards

jt

[Lin Evans]

Hi John,

Just to clarify a bit what JT49 has said, but in verbal rather than math terms.

Once you have sized a line or lines of text in a specific font and, in the case of multiple lines of text with a specific line spacing, you can then just copy and paste the zoom value(s) found in the Animations Tab and apply that to each subsequent line or lines of new text objects to keep everything consistent in size.

Best regards,

Lin

[jt49]

The line spacing makes the situation a bit awkward. In cases where it has its default value zero, the situation is quite nice. For any font, if a single line has zoom value 20 (say), then with 4 lines (same font) the letters have the same size if the zoom value is set to 80 (4 times 20); so we have the rule of three or rule of proportion, here. If you want to have line spacing different from zero, you might set the line spacing values to zero first, then you can adjust the text sizes, and then set the spacing to the value you want to have.

Regards,

jt

[JEB]

Hi jt,

Thank you for responding.

I confess I was having just a little trouble interpreting what you were saying (not being particularly mathematically literate!!). However Lin has confirmed I was in fact on the right track.

Your methods are I think similar to the one I describe in my opening post and is also one I often adopt.

However, can you explain the following please?

Capture A (slide 1) shows the size of a block of text on this slide with the zoom set to 15.

Capture B (slide 2) shows the size of a block of text on another slide with the zoom set at 33.

Both A and B's text are approximately the same size visibly. Neither block of text is a parent or child of any other object on their slide.

Capture C (slide 2) shows the size of the same block of text with the zoom set to 15

How can this be?

This is something that I come across quite frequently.

How do you think this is happening?

Cheers

John

[jt49]

It would be easier for me to judge on the situation if you would extract the two slides form your project to an new project, and if you would show it to me (zip backup). You could attach it to a post in the forum, or make an upload and send me the link.

Regards,

jt

[Lin Evans]

Hi John,

Not to answer for JT49, but the zoom is initially set "per single line" (or another way to express this is per the bounding rectangle) so that if the number of lines changes, the zoom numbers change accordingly. Try this: Create a new blank slide and type in some text on a single line and then type the zoom number to 10. Now add a second line of text without changing the zoom number and it will automatically default to 20. Add a third line and the zoom will change to 30. So what we see is that the zoom value represents the "block" of the text object rather than the individual text line. So when you begin your fist line of text, if you copy that value and use it for subsequent text the individual characters will maintain their proper size even though the zoom numbers change.

Your best strategy is to copy the zoom of the first "line" of text and apply to subsequent lines; then let the automatic features of PTE take care of changing the value to suit the number of lines of text in the text object.

Best regards,

Lin

[JEB]

Thanks Lin,

I understand now. It did actually cross my mind as I was submitting my last post that both blocks of text had different numbers of lines so that I may and indeed was not, comparing apples with apples as it were. I will now just have to live with this.

I recognise that there are very good reasons for this being the way it is for those of you who perform intricate actions with objects and that TEXT is just another object. However for those of us who use TEXT in a more "conventional" way it is not in the least bit intuitive. Perhaps there is a case for an alternative tool for fulfilling basic titling?

Thank you both for your help.

Regards

John

[jkb]

Does it really matter what the zoom says?

Just copy your first text object to subsequent slides & change the text to say what you want.

As long as it looks 'correct' who cares what the numbers say!

Jill

[Big Kev]

Hi All,

If I am demonstrating moving text around, panning, zooming or any other movements I never, ever, look at the figures in the PAN or ZOOM box (in fact thinking about it I never look at the slide or dissolve times on the individual slides in the 'Slides' view!)

As we are not viewing mathematically an image or a piece of text it is much simpler to use the bounding boxes and just drag the text or image to the place you want it to start and then add another key point and drag the text or image to where you want it to finish. The size of the text can be increased by the bounding box and the number of lines of text can be changed in the Properties box by making a return.

If you wish to transfer the various keypoints to another slide - just copy and paste the slide.

Despite our freely given help, we do seem to try and make things complicated for beginners.

Best wishes

John

[jt49]

... Despite our freely given help, we do seem to try and make things complicated for beginners ...

I have some doubts that post in this forum should be restricted to the aspect of being helpful for beginners. Beginners may ask their questions, and we should give appropriate answers. But in cases where an experienced user asks for a definite rule, why not giving the answer

Regards,

jt

[JEB]

Hi,

I feel I should add a final comment to this thread.

I think I made it clear in my original post that I was asking for an explanation as to why I was getting what I felt were inconsistencies in the figures being generated in the zoom field. I am indebted to both jt and Lin for taking the time to explain this to me and presumably others who may also have noticed this for themselves and wondered what was going on.

As it turns out, perhaps it doesn't "matter what the zoom says", however for me a text sizing tool for titling would be a much more user friendly (and accurate) method than copying and pasting or relying on the eye when creating titles.

One of the great strengths of PTE is its flexibility, enabling the free expression as appears to be being expressed by Big Kev and the precision required by equally artistic exponents of work produced by the likes of Lin and many others.

Hopefully, some of us have learned something.

Cheers

John