Object toolbox
This cluster of four Classic Title Editor tool buttons is located at left below the Edit Window.
The first tool (the arrow) is used for all editing operations upon the currently-selected object. A selected object is surrounded by a number of control points with which you can change its size, position, proportions, and other geometrical features.
The other three tools are for creating objects in the Edit Window – text boxes, ellipses and rectangles.
Each is used in the same general way. Click one of the three tools, then click the Edit Window at the point where one corner of the object should be. Drag the mouse to outline the new object as indicated by the dotted line.
When the object has the size and proportions you want, release the mouse. Whatever its type, the object is created with the specified dimensions. Its other attributes – color, shading, shadow, etc. – are determined by the currently selected look in the Classic Title Editor Album. All attributes can later be changed at will.
After the object is created, the object tool you used deselects, and the selection arrow again becomes active. The object itself is selected – shown in the usual way by its control points – and can now be manipulated with the mouse.
Reordering objects in three dimensions
Because objects can overlap one another, it is easy to get into situations where an object that should be completely visible is partly or wholly obscured by one or more other objects. In such cases, use the four reordering commands on the Classic Title Editor’s Layers menu. These commands affect the currently-selected object, symbolized by rectangle “3” in the diagram.
· Bring to Front: The object is moved out in front of all other objects. In the diagram, object 3 is now in front of object 1.
· Send to Back: The object moves behind all other objects. Object 3 is now behind object 5.
· Bring Forward One Layer: Object 3 now lies in front of objects 2, 4 and 5, but is still behind object 1.
· Send Back One Layer: Object 3 is now behind objects 1, 2 and 4, but is still in front of object 5.
Selecting a text object is different in one important way from selecting a rectangle or ellipse: the object’s text field is put into a “ready” state in which any keyboard activity will cause the field to activate and start displaying the input text.
The activation of the text field is indicated by a text insertion cursor, the changed appearance of the object frame, and the disappearance of the control points.
When a text object is not selected, you can activate its text field directly by clicking in the middle of the object. If you want the selection frame and control points to appear, you must click on the edges of the object. With other types of object, you can click anywhere in an object to select it.
To deactivate a text field, click anywhere in the Edit Window outside the text object.
Because text plays a central role in most titles and menus, the Text Editor will automatically create and activate a text object in the center of the Edit Window if you simply begin typing at a time when no text object already exists.
Advanced text editing features
As in a word processing program, the Classic Title Editor allows you to format a selected range of characters. Simply mark an adjacent set of characters with the mouse and apply the formatting you desire.
Supported operations on character ranges include text styling (font, style and look), clipboard operations (cut, copy, paste), delete, and a number of special positioning, spacing and scaling commands that are accessible only from the keyboard. These are described under Keyboard Shortcuts.