Text/caption improvement

[rstovall7@comcast.net]

It is sometimes necessary to include a semi-transparent background to text to make it more readable over an image. There are means for doing that now, but it's pretty obscure (Properties, Common, Text Shadow & Customize, just to get to the panel "Drop Shadow & Glow". This seems to have the necessary tools, but aside from Colors & Opacity, there are additional obscure settings (Angle, Distance, Size, Spread). Surely there is a more user friendly path to adding a semi-transparent background to text.

[jt49]

You may add a rectangle of an appropriate size, aspect ratio and tranparency. Insert the text object as a child of this rectangle.

[rstovall7@comcast.net]

I've only had PTE AV Studio 10 for a couple of months, but have spent quite a few hours banging around within (& have learned a LOT. Really nice design & terrific capabilities). Nonetheless, I still struggle w/ filling the text box w/ a semi-transparent, solid color background. In my initial post I comment that a semi-transparent text background IS ACHIEVABLE following the stipulated rules, but it seems tortured for something that would seem to be a common function. Most of the time it works, but occasionally the choice of 100% opaque is insufficient for the image over which the text appears. Of course, the settings are for Drop Shadow & Glow, so I understand why the PTE designer might want to keep a shadow from being fully opaque.

So I tried the suggestion in your reply of April 11. Maybe I'm missing something, but this approach is even more tortured. My guess is that the 1st step is to create the text so the user can then create a rectangle of the right size. Step 2: insert rectangle. Step 3: Go to Properties/Change (Vertical) Native Resolution so rectangle height is same as text. Step 4: change (Horizontal) native resolution to width of text. No wait, "Fit mode" (Fit or Cover) constrains that. So, go to "Animation", unchain/unlock X&Y Zoom. Adjust Y-Zoom to height of text (but don't grab the handles on the rectangle image, or X & Y are again zooming together). Step 5: position rectangle over the text & move it underneath (Ctrl+Page Down). But don't make it a "child" of the rectangle or its size will change. OR, start 1st w/ an approximate sized rectangle & insert text as a "child" (as you suggest). Same problems w/ native resolution & "Fit", though workarounds similar to the above discussion will bring the rectangle to a good size, but the text inside bears little relationship to text elsewhere in the slideshow (text zoom of 15 here may be way different from text created w/o the "child of a rectangle".

Granted, I'm little more than a newbie & maybe it's easier than I'm making it. And I'm asking myself this question: If I believe this is a common function that needs the software designers' attention, why has no one else mentioned it?

[AlexRoma]

the text section needs a lot of improvements

[jkb]

set up the text once, then save as a Text Template & you will then have the same properties to quickly apply to future Text items

[rstovall7@comcast.net]

With more experience I will figure this out, but trials w/ my newbie experience & others' instructions are not showing the results I would have hoped for. As it stands, my need for an opaque text background is rare - the Drop Shadow & Glow method will suffice for 95% of my text cases. Here is how I can manage the other 5%: 1) create text in usual fashion, 2) switch text object zoom to pixels, 3) insert rectangle, 4) change its zoom to pixels & add another 10 or 20 pixels to the X & Y zoom settings so it larger than the text, 5) move both text & rectangle to preferred location; text above the rectangle, of course.

If this "New Member" may offer a simple suggestion: Make it possible for the Drop Shadow & Glow to go fully opaque. Seems simple, solves the problem. (I still think the Drop Shadow & Glow approach fails the "intuitive test", but of course "intuitive" is a subjective characterization.

Thanks for all your efforts. This software & its supporters stand well ahead of any competitors.