Hello DSE:

Thank you so much for such a quick response. I did try that several times, but when I drag the preset to the timeline, and then try and edit the text Charecter, Transform and Offset all become grayed out and I'm left with just my new text of LORI with no animation. So I guess my question now is, Once I drag the preset of BOUNCE to the timeline, is there a certain way that I should be edititing the word BOUNCE in order for all of the letters in LORI to take on the Bounce Attributes? So Sorry...........I'm usually pretty good an digging around and figuring these things out.
Thank you for your time!!!
Lori J

i think that may be a "quirk" in the software. I just placed the bounce on the timeline, replaced the letters with "LORI" & it worked no problem.

But right after that I tried "drop split" in a new event. I placed it, replaced the text, then it wouldn't drop in, it would just to the "smear" in & split away. Do it again in a new event & it works fine. :)

empty preset to timeline
drag bounce to protype timeline
slide protype cursor untillbounce shows
double click bounce
edit text
click top of pro type window and try it

it works. :?

Thanks Guys!!!
I feel like such and Idiot......Dummy Me, I wasn't highlighting the word BOUNCE, I was just positioning my cursor at the beginning of the word BOUNCE, typing in LORI and then deleting the excess letters leftover from BOUNCE. But once I actually highlighted the word and then followed your directions, everything works as expected.

Thank you so much
Lori J

Here's how it seems to work every time;
drop preset
Edit text
hit ESC or click Esc bar
Then your text will be animated.

I've found that if you don't escape from Text mode, sometimes the attributes don't re-apply themselves.

Don't feel like an idiot. I was waiting for someone to ask this question. Intuitively, one should be able to type in your text and then just drag and drop the effect you want on top of it. Fine tuning could then be done on the timeline. Hopefully, the titler will get to that point :-)

Don't feel like an idiot

I concur. If the online help/manual had the info it would be a different story, but it doesn't. :( So no idiots here! :D

I'm with you too...I had the same questions, just hadn't asked them yet.

Thanks for asking this question. I think it's pretty annoying that we can't apply attributes to our own text. I often change my mind a few times and if I have to recreate my text every time I want to change the collection it gets pretty old. Then I have to change color, stroke, etc. all over again.

And I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wish we had a color picker. And I wish the font used normal font point sizes. It becomes frustrating when comparing it to other programs that there isn't a common point of reference. i.e. just use 64 point font......is that 2, 3, 4 in the protype tool?

One other thing regarding presets. I don't know if its a bug but if I copy and paste text that uses a collection and then change the text to something else it seems like the collection attributes don't show up. Even if all the text is selected beforehand.

I really want to like this tool but it seems really buggy.

Deleted by user.

I may be too old for all this (70) but just how does one "edit the text" after applying the collection to the timeline? I just cannot figure that out. I think I have tried everything but still can't remove the type and put my own in. ( I must have started using computers too late in my life) However, I have been editing with Vegas since #4 and it seems to me this should not be so hard to do. I wish there was more of a basic tutorial to use, more detailed then the one I found at the Vegas site. thanks Roger

Huh?
Once you apply YOUR text to to the attributes, it's done, changed, finished.
if you want to re-edit your text, do so. All the attributes are intact.
it's a simple matter of clicking on/selecting which text level you wish to edit, and hittin the "EDIT TEXT" option in the toolbar. Change "Quick Brown Fox" to "Betty Goes Shopping" and you're done. Nothing else to change... If you wish to go more deeply and work on the characters, words, or individual lines, that gets into the parent/child relationships, and is much more complex.

Thanks so much Spot, (I read your stuff all the time) but you didn't tell me HOW to do that.
"Once you apply YOUR text to to the attributes, it's done, changed, finished.
if you want to re-edit your text, do so"
Appying and changing the text is what I can't figure out" Therefore, I still don't know what to do. I know I am missing something very simple. darn

I really appreciate your help. thanks so much, Roger

OK....like this:

Drop a preset on the timeline in ProType. Close the Collections window.
There is now text in the window.
Select said text by clicking once (or double clicking to put in Edit mode.
Change text to read what you want it to read.
Select the Text Edit button again, hit the Exit bar at the top, or press the ESC key to exit.
Now, the preset from the Collections tab contains your text, with the preset attributes.
it's faster to do than to have to read it or type it, trust me.

Thank you SO much! I didn't "Close the Collections window." I just knew it was somthing simple. ( Why didn't I think of that? he said.)

I need a book. Roger :o)

This little add-on could might just need it's own 400 page manual!

I was playing with a collection called fly in. I wanted the test to fly out rather than fade out. To do this I copied the clip, reversed the copy and crossfaded them together!

I was able to do what I wanted without recreating the movement.

I think I will like this little app :)

~Jay

BTW- Thanks for ESC tip! That makes all the differene in the world to know that.

TheBook is forthcoming.

In dragging a Collection option to the timeline, one loses all animation formatting if the first letter of a sample word is replaced. Perhaps someone can explain why.

Try this. Drag "popup" to the tiimeline. Sample text appears as "popup " if the timeline cursor is dragged 2 sec to the right to reveal the word. Double click to edit text to read "popdown." Exit editor with ESC. Drag cursor to the left. Hit play. Animation still works. Now edit text to read "mopup" and all the keyframe data goes dark gray (i.e., bye-bye).

Lots of potential here, but clearly, ProType is not ready for prime time.
Looking forward to 8.0a (and b, c, d.......).

:-) Text from the ProType titler has already been seen on primetime, but that's a different story.

Can't repro the problem you're mentioning here.
Dropping "Popup" to the timeline.
Double clicking to put in Edit mode.
Editing Text.
Exiting
Playing (it plays fine)
Now double-clicking again to edit.
Editing text to new name
Exiting
Playing (plays correctly)

I do agree, the information surrounding HOW to use the titler isn't ready for primetime, I've had a coupla months with it, and time helps.

Funny. I cannot get any sample text to animate if I change its first letter. Maybe my MacPro isn't fast enough. Or maybe the OS-X partition is sending jealous tentacles into the XP partition. Fortunately there's always LiveType over there.

It might be better if the titler accepted a user's text and THEN animated it. That would get it closer to prime time, or at least closer to a normal user interface.

I would guess that the users whose ProType text has gotten on prime time had the benefit of a couple of months figuring out what was never revealed in the documentation.

Then again, there is no written documentation. And the help files are somewhat less than helpful.. There is no easy way to print them out keeping all the arrows pointing down to reveal the hidden secrets.

I only hope Sony decides to add a .pdf to its download directory called "Sorry, Here's the Real Deal on Our ProType Titler."

Just installed Logic 8 on the Mac side, relishing in the nearly 1800 pages of printed manuals that came in the box., plus a dozen .pdf's of late-breaking stuff. Despite Sony's disdain for printing, I do like Vegas much more than FCS.

Hi Everyone:

When I first posted my problem about applying the Collections Presets to my own text, I too was experiencing the incident where as if you change the first letter, everything grayed out....refer to my first post of this thread. Then after DSE and others explained to me how to change the existing Collections sample text I have had no problems.

What I found was the key, was having to actualy highlight the preset text before you start to change it. So, for example: Drag the preset BOUNCE to the timeline. Drag the timeline slider to the right until you see the entire word BOUNCE accross the workspace. Position your cursor to the left of the letter B in Bounce and while holding down your left mouse button, highlight the entire word BOUNCE. While highlighted, start changing it to your own text. Hit the ESC key when your text says what you want it to say. All of the BOUNCE attributes should now be applied to your own text.

Hope this helps.............I'm glad I'm not the only one that was having trouble understanding this ( hahaha)
Lori J.