Why Text Can't be Dragged Any Longer

You've placed some text into your Timeline and need to drag it out (yes, you can COMMAND + J it instead, I know) but for some reason you can't drag it any longer. Cthulhu has decided to make your afternoon a little more hassleful but you can fight back.

You need the lower text element to be as long as the other but it won't drag (extend) any further. Here's why:

If you double click the text element in the Timeline to load it into the Viewer (that's what those perfs are telling you and if you don't know what a perf is I'll cry and feel even older, thanks) you'll see that the portion of the text you've placed into the Timeline, as demarcated by the In and Out points is near the end of the text element. You can't drag it past the "end" of the text element. The solution? Move the In and Out points of the text element.

This is what it'll look like after you move the In and Out points of the text element further back. Since text elements don't change (default ones anyway) the text on screen will look the same. But how can you move both simultaneously?

Hold down SHIFT and Click and Drag either the In or Out point and you'll be able to slide both, simultaneously left (or right if for some reason you want to do that).

Done.

Btw, and I should have mentioned this originally with the post but as mentioned in the comments for this post you can tap S in FCP and Slip the text element right in the Timeline. Thanks for reminding me, folks!

Shift+N and Missing Frames

I haven't had time to really test this and see if it's an occasional bug or an actual repeatable bug but, I had a Typewriter Text Element which needed to be extended a few seconds after it completed it's action. So, opening it up in the Viewer and hitting Shift+N (for still frame) I noticed that it removed the last one or two frames of it's typing action.



So, instead of it reading Day014 it would suddenly read Day01 when I hit the key combo. I'll investigate it further but it was repeatable that day and I didn't try restarting FCP to see if that cleared it up. The project isn't over yet so I'll have more time to test it later.

Super Fast Text Insert

Lets say you need to put some text into your project and want to use FCP's Text Generator. Here's a fast way to do it making a round trip from the timeline window, to the viewer full of text generating goodness and back to the timeline window without using the mouse:

1. Make sure your timeline is the active window so tap Command + 3 to bring it to the foreground. If it vanishes, don't panic, hit Command + 3 again to bring it back and make it the active window.

Now is the time to place the playhead where you want it with Left Arrow or Right Arrow (or if you don't want to move your fingers even that far use ; (semi-colon) and ' (apostrophe).

2. Now, lets set the target video track. Pick the one you want and hold down F6 then tap the track number you want in the top row of numbers on your keyboard.

3. Next, hit Control + X to bring up Text Generator in your Viewer.

4. Then, hit Shift + Command + ] (right bracket) to cycle through the tabs in the Viewer until you have Controls selected.

5. Tap Tab to highlight the "SAMPLE TEXT" you see there.

6. Type your text. The trick here to get out of typing mode and into a mode where you can overwrite or insert your text into the timeline is to tap Tab again. You'll see the Size text (number?) entry box's contents highlighted but ignore that for now unless you want to adjust the text size.

7. Tap F10 to overwrite or F9 to insert your text element into your timeline and you'll find the timeline window is already active ready for the next edit.

Custom Text Templates

Here's a fairly simple way to make a custom text template if you need to use the same text formatting or cards or whatever across multiple projects.

01) In your current project or in a new one, make a new Sequence by highlighting the Browser by either clicking on it or tapping Command + 4. Name it something that will help you like Text Template or whatever.
02) Open that new sequence and build your text card the way you want it. Save the project (you have to).
03) In the Browser 2nd click on the text template's sequence and select Export > XML... and give it a name and save it to someplace you'll remember.
04) Now, in some later project when you need your template 2nd click in the Browser and choose Import > XML... (or in the menubar choose File > Import > XML...) and let FCP do it's thing.
(yeah, I know there's no default key command for Importing an XML file...)
05) You'll see a new sequence appear in your browser named Text Template or whatever you named it when you created it.
06) Treat it as a normal clipping even though it's a sequence (actually, it's a nest). Drag it to your timeline and you have your template already built and ready to be modified.
07) To modify it, double click it in the Timeline and edit away. It'll even retain any keyframing you've done ;)

Note: The XML file doesn't contain any actual media, (it's a text file) so anything that your template links to should be available for it when you use it, meaning images or special fonts, etc...

And if you're anything like me, right about now you're going, "Hey...that could be used for..."

Exactly.

Scaling Text in FCP

Sometimes it's just faster to have a text effect done right in FCP rather than going to LiveType or Motion. But here's one thing you shouldn't do: when you want text to grow or enlarge over time with keyframes keyframe it's scale it rather than keyframing the font size.

If you keyframe the font size you'll get unpredictable results that usually, don't look all that great.