# Adding animated text

Animated text is text that has applied special effects. Captivate offers a wide variety of text animation effects that you can experiment with. For example, on the opening slide of a movie you can have text fly in or fade in for an eye-catching start.

Slides containing animated text are displayed in Captivate's two views, Storyboard view and Edit view, and the Filmstrip (an option in Edit view) just like other slides. (For more information about views and the Filmstrip, see About the work environment.)

#### To add animated text:

1. Open a Captivate movie.

2. From the Insert menu, select Text Animation.

The New text animation dialog box appears.

3. Click the Text Animation tab.

4. In the Text box, enter the text to animate.

The text appears in the Preview window.

5. Click on the Effect pop-up menu and select from countless animation effects. Select different effects to preview them in the Preview window on the left.

6. Set font, transparency, and delay options:

   Change font: Click to specify font options such as font name, style, size, effects, and colors.

   Transparency: Specifies a transparency level for the animated text. For a very dim animated text effect, select a low number such as 10. For darker text, select a high number such as 85.

   Delay (frames): This is the amount of time, in number of slides, between when the slide appears and the animated text is displayed.

7. Click on the Options tab. This tab enables you to set timing and transitions for the animated text. Select from the following options:

   Continue movie while playing animation: Select this option to continue playing the movie while the animation plays. As the movie plays, the animation overlays all slides and layers. This option is useful if you have an animation file that you want to continually appear in a corner of the movie.

   Stop playing animation when slide ends: Select this option if you want the movie to stop playing when the movie moves to the next slide. (The amount of time a slide appears is set in the various timing options such as the Slide timing dialog and the Movie Preferences dialog.)

   Show for [#] seconds: Specifies an exact time, in seconds, for the animation to appear. Type in a number or use the arrows to set a number.

   Appear after [#] seconds: Plays the animation file after the slide has displayed for the selected number of seconds. Type in a number or use the arrows to set a number.

   Display for rest of movie: Select this option to display the animation on this slide and keep displaying the animation until the end of the movie.

   Loop: Select this option to have the animation file continuously loop (play over and over again) as the movie plays.

   Effect: Use the drop-down box to select a transition effect for the animation (e.g., fade in and out).

   In [#] seconds: Specifies the amount of time for the animation to fully fade into view.

   Out [#] seconds: Specifies the amount of time for the animation to completely disappear from view.

   Apply effect to all text animations in the movie: Select this option to apply the changes you made on this tab to all text animations in the movie.

8. (Optional) Click on the Audio tab to set animated text audio options:

   : Click to play the audio file.

   : Click to stop playing the audio file.

   : Click to remove the audio file from the animated text.

   Edit: Displays the Edit Audio dialog box. This dialog box lets you edit the audio file in a variety of ways, such as inserting silent periods and adjusting the volume.

   Audio: Displays the name of the audio file, if any, associated with the animated text.

   Record new: Click to open the Record Audio dialog box. (Recording audio requires some basic equipment.)

   Import: Displays the Import Audio dialog box. This dialog box lets you browse to an audio file and import it.

   Select Existing: Click to open the Audio Library. The Audio Library lists all audio files that are already part of the currently open Captivate movie.

   Fade in [#] seconds: Specifies the number of seconds for the audio to fade in to full volume.

   Fade out [#] seconds: Specifies the number of seconds for audio to fade out to silence.

9. Click OK.