For really easy title animation don't forget that you can use any video transition with a text item. And you can apply any transition to a standalone text or video item by creating a fade-in or fade-out and dragging and dropping the transition on the fade area. That is, transitions don't really require a crossover from one clip to another. You simply create a fade-in or fade-out and then apply a transition there.

1. Create a text event and place the text where you want it to end up on the screen.

2. At the left edge of the text event grab the upper left corner and drag it to the right to create a fade in.

3. Open the "Transitions" tab and in the left frame click on "Slide".

4. Grab the "Slide-in, Left-Right" transition and drop it on your fade-in.

The length of time it takes to slide onto the screen is adjusted by adjusting the length of the fade-in.

Obviously, the pan-crop method can give more precise results when needed, but using the Transitions methods is very quick, is easy to adjust the duration, and opens up all sorts of other opportunities -- "Iris" transition, linear wipes or clock wipes, 3D fly-ins and fly-outs, etc. Don't forget that once you apply a transition you can click on the "X" shaped icon on the fade-in and a window will pop up letting you play with all kinds of settings for that transition.

Tim L

There is a length indicator box at the top of the text generator window. The default can be set in preferences. You can manually change it by changing the numbers.