> 1. Create a selection (click/drag) on a track
> 2. right click inside the selection
> 3. Insert Text Media
> 4. Done

Thanks, I have Vegas tied up doing a semi long render to avi so can't do this right now. However, I didn't notice a way to set the duration in your steps.

Do you go by markers on the time line or what? Say I wanted to make sure most of my transitions are the same length. How can I set them all to say 4 seconds and only adjust the odd one?

Is there some way to set the duration before insertion to time line? Or during by mens of numeric setting?

Ack... I had a brain storm and installed the trial on a second machine so I could try your suggestion.

I finally figured out how to set the time numerically with the number thingy in the bottom right of that event dialog box. For some reason it would not become active with my clicks so I thought it was not a setable readout.

Seems to be kind of particular about where you click it. But suddenly it became active and of course was then abundantly clear how to set it.

Spot told you about text. For transitions the length of the transition is determined by how much you drag one clip or one event over the other. As you start you'll see a X. If automatic cross fade is enabled you end up with the default transition. If you want to get fancy drag and drop any of the transitions onto the portion on the timeline covered by the "x".

I use the markers on the timeline to see how long the time span is. Also see Options, preferences under the Editing tab.

You can also make selections more clear by pressing the "Q" key to make the selection show blue instead of grey.
As you've found, you can specify exact lengths in the event dialog, or you can also go to the lower right hand corner and type in a length for a selection.
For example, if you want a 5 second transition, make a selection of any length, then go to the lower selection time window, type in 00:00:05:00 (colons not needed) and the selection you created will be that length.
From there, slide the selection bar to where you want the transition or title to occur. either right click to select a title length, or slide your two pieces of media inside the selected area length, and voila!, you've got a timed transition or title.
If you have a lot of these and you want them exact lengths, either Ultimate S from VASST or Neon from Gary Kleiner/Ed Troxel can set all these transitions to specified lengths. The Ultimate S tool will allow you to choose what sort of transitions will be applied.

OK, thanks for the input. I'm beginning to see how it works but will take some getting used to. All that slipping and sliding around on the time line seems very inaccurate. Spots last post looks like it shows a way to nail it down before insertion.... exactly what I hoped for.

Spot, I think I'm still missing something here:

> For example, if you want a 5 second transition, make a selection of any
> length, then go to the lower selection time window, type in 00:00:05:00
> (colons not needed) and the selection you created will be that length.

I'm guessing you mean the lower time window on the dialog box that appear when you drag a transition to time line?

If so, I'm not seeing this... I also thought that field was editable when it turned blue but when I type an amount in there it goes back to original soon as I hit enter.

> From there, slide the selection bar to where you want the transition or title
> to occur. either right click to select a title length, or slide your two pieces of
> media inside the selected area length, and voila!, you've got a timed
> transition or title.

That appears to be true for Titles but I don't see that for transitions.
How are you getting a tranistion to keep the time you insert. I'm assuming you're droping it on a clip or title somewhere, then getting the event dialog... here when I edit the lower time setting in that dialog it doesn't stick but reverts when pressing enter. Are you seeing something different

There are also all sorts of scripts that let you set the duration of transitions and more. Some of these are available via script packages such as Excalibur, Neon, and Ultimate S. Search for these words in the Vegas forum and you'll find lots of information.

> That appears to be true for Titles but I don't see that for transitions.
> How are you getting a tranistion to keep the time you insert. I'm assuming
> you're droping it on a clip or title somewhere, then getting the event dialog...
> here when I edit the lower time setting in that dialog it doesn't stick but
> reverts when pressing enter. Are you seeing something different

Ahh phooey, the above doesn't even appear to be true. The time inserted into the dialog box doesn't really do anything to a title. Try changing the time after putting one on the time line and you will see it doesn't change. play it and it will not be the time you set.

So without resorting to running after more tooling how can I replicate a transitions duration. So far it seem not to be part of the plan.

There are only three ways to consistently provide a transitional length that I know of. You can:
Create a fixed length selection and drag it around the timeline
Use a scripting tool
Set a length around the cursor for keypad editing
one other little trick is to create an empty event of a specific length and slide that around instead of worrying about keeping a selection. Double click the empty event, that creates a selection and helps you snap your transitions to length.

Perhaps this script does some of what you want:

Set Event Length And Crossfade