+ one more. make life a lot easier, or adjustable grid?

Just in case you didn't know, there is a GRID in the program window. Not exactly a ruler and can't be adjusted, but it is a good guide.

You can always add another track above your text layers, add in a transparent background Legacy Text event, fill a line with dashes or underscores, and slide it up and down with pan/crop. Not elegant, but effective.

You can always add another track above your text layers, add in a transparent background Legacy Text event, fill a line with dashes or underscores, and slide it up and down with pan/crop. Not elegant, but effective.

That is what actually did, there must be a quicker way to achive this process.

There is a grid in the video preview.

Yes there's a grid but it's a very poor way of lining things up.

There is a grid in the video preview.

 

It will do it for the moment but it's very old school

Maybe I dont understand this whole discussion. The (Legacy) Text and Titles & Text of Vegas Pro both have a Position tab where you can input numerical values to position the text. Both can also change the anchor point of the text. How much more accurate do you need it?

there is nothing like a scalable grid for lining things up whether symetrically or not. i'd be lost without one in photoshop and am lost in vegas with it's primative grid, etc., 

Maybe I dont understand this whole discussion. The (Legacy) Text and Titles & Text of Vegas Pro both have a Position tab where you can input numerical values to position the text. Both can also change the anchor point of the text. How much more accurate do you need it?

The numeric Values in Vegas are not very accurate and decimal values are worse. That's why we need rules not just for text it can be use for shape layers or any other graphic content.

Sorry, but nothing is more accurate then numeric values; even rulers work with numeric values. Every "object" can be moved around in Vegas accurately with Pan/Crop or  Track Motion. I agree, having rulers would make it more convenient but not more accurate.

OldSmoke, I have to agree with Haritol. As a test I just made two titles using the Sony Titles and Text. Same size and location numbers, but I dragged the text in one around first by the handles. Then entered the numbers and they did not postion the same. It is accurate if you enter only numbers and don't manipulate in any other way, but I need to see the position first before I know what numbers need to be entered.   I am talking about entering numbers in the TEXT position box, not pan or track motion.

DonaldT -- be sure to set the achor point (right below location) to your desired reference. By default it's set to center.

Not changing the anchor point. Here is what I did. Used the default text and changed it to size 20. Move around on the screen with the cursor and then made note of the position. Entered a new text and typed in the position that was noted, it is not in the same place. A few pixels off.

DonaldT -- I see what you're talking about. But I guess I've never used the text editor like this. I did some experimenting with it and appears that the type of anchor point and the font being used also makes a difference.

Well, after a little more experimenting it appears to be a cursor position numerical rounding issue. Since it uses a percentage coordinate system and not an absolute pixel position the math used isn't accurate enough -- especially when using an HD sized (1920 x 1080) project -- there just aren't enough numbers between 100 and 0 the get a repeatable position. Kinda like trying to achieve a smooth gradient using a single color channel with 8 bit color, dithering is the only workable technique. And you can't dither absolute pixel positions.

Anything related to positioning should be done while using preview with setting "Best (Full)" without any further scaling. Also, when moving the text element you will only see two digits after the decimal point for x and y axis while actually there are more digits after the zero point. It might be you moved your text and read 0.8 and 0.1 for x and y but actually it is 0.80499 and 0,0950 which will make a noticable difference then. 

Typing the values are accurate but you need to use more then two digits after the decimal point. I would use maybe four for precise positioning.

Marco, but since it does not display 4 by default, then it is not accurate, thus being rather useless to match other positions. I don't want to take time to try all of the 1000 numbers to get an exact match. When I move the text via cursor, it does not show 4 decimal point digits.

This is correct. Maybe using lecacy text at least does bit better job as it displays three digits.

Similar for ProType Titler where two digits after the decimal point are used but the range before the decimal point ten times wider.

Marco, but since it does not display 4 by default, then it is not accurate, thus being rather useless to match other positions.

So would be a ruler. Do you expect the ruler to position to text with pixel for pixel resolution? You would need to zoom in on the preview to get that done. Try placing the first one and make another with the same content in different color, move the second one with the mouse and see how long it will take you to overlap the two.

Let's say we get rulers, horizontal and vertical. You would still eyeball the second text unless the rulers show exact pixel position. Another way is to have the text snap to a grid with its coners, center and the mid points of the text box. In order to do so, you would have to define a grid spacing, from half the project resolution up to one pixel. And if you dont want to snap to the grid, since we cant have two objects like text on the same track(layer), Vegas would have to be able to snap to the dimensions of another object on a different layer. 

From my point of view, it would take more then just rulers. It would however be much easier if the positions x & y would not be in percentage but actual pixel position depending on project resolution, similar to Pan/Crop and Track Motion.

And here is another way to overcome the current short coming. Once you have positioned the first text, make a copy of it and just change the content, it will be in the exact same loction as the first one.

Oldsmoke, yes, good points , although with an adjustable ruler in Photoshop, I have aligned text extremely accurately. But I don't see a reason why we shouldn't request a ruler and movable grid as part of any upgrade to the text tool.  Is there a reason not to make the request?

Part of the problem is, it is not a wysiwig title tool. Premiere has a bit better tool, but still no movable grid (at least in CS3, I don't know about currently). 

Donald,

Nothing wrong with asking for it as long as we ask for something that really works better, just rulers alone don't do the trick. I also wouldn't put it high on the list as everything can be done with the current tools.