Quick question - why title designer? .
.
BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

I am under the impression that the Title Designer is the only way to add text over the whole screen. Is there another way? www.rickcowan.com
www.calvarybaptistwindsor.com

Sorry, my mind was elsewhere. Have you thought about copying and pasting all the text and then applying scrolling text? Use returns to space out the lines of text. .
.
BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Hi Rick -

Steve's suggestion could work well for you, depending on how long you want particular verses displayed on the screen.

With PD (and it may be the case for other NLEs too), you cannot escape the need to manually insert line breaks.

If you use (say) a PDF file of whatever version of the Bible you're using, you may be able to save wear & tear on your Enter key. Copying & pasting from the PDF to Title Designer will retain the breaks. There'll still be some formatting to do "on screen".

Some PDF downloads: http://www.turnbacktogod.com/download-the-entire-holy-bible-as-a-pdf-file/

Another possibility (if you're only displaying static screens) is to create each "slide" in Word or PowerPoint - which do have WordWrap - and use screen shots of the pages as separate image files.

There are other possibilities, but I'm unsure what "look" you're after.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Thanks for the feedback,

Here is an example of what I'm doing.. wait a few seconds and see the verses fade in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCGPfspPvs#t=10m26s

I think the conclusion I'm coming to is that there is no "easy" way to do what I want to do. Pasting from a PDF will work, but still.. the margins of the PDF will be different from the margins in PD, so I would have to adjust all the line breaks manually anyway.

This is a real shame because adding a "Wrap Text" option seems like it would be so simple.. and so time saving. PD already has options for justifying text and other simple word processing features so one would think wrapping text would not be a big deal. I like PD so far.. but if there is another quality program out there that also wraps text, I'll have to consider moving over to that one. www.rickcowan.com
www.calvarybaptistwindsor.com

That's easy Rick...

You have still text on a background fading in over the video. The text/titling facility appears to be a major part of what you're doing, so just format your text slides in Word (or similar software with word wrap) then use screenshots to fade in over your video.

Example attached took about a minute to make in Word/Paint.NET

Cheers - Tony


Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Hi Tony,

I appreciate your time and attention to my problem here.

The videos that I am producing are not simply for Youtube but also for TV. They are shot on an HD camera so ideally the background images would be the appropriate resolution and dimensions for HDTV. The problem with a screenshot is that it will only give you an image at the current resolution of your computer screen.

The screenshot idea is probably the closest to a solution.. but the best would still be the simple addition of "Word Wrap" in PD!!

Thanks again! www.rickcowan.com
www.calvarybaptistwindsor.com

Update: I'm playing with taking screenshots in Powerpoint. It seems to be working well. Thanks for the idea. (Would still prefer word wrap though www.rickcowan.com
www.calvarybaptistwindsor.com

power point has the option to save each slide as a picture, this will give you the best resloution rather than screenshots, you cold then use chroma key to cut out the back ground, and stretch to make the picture fit the screen

CT

Chris Tayler
taylerchris@gmail.com

My Work
http://youtu.be/IBwkyXLGdUw
http://youtu.be/6qspu0oDp8U
http://youtu.be/7qvuQ4zXxII
http://youtu.be/lZqWQfcn_PQ

Hi,
Well I am an expert here but why not have the "bille passages as subtitles scroll along the bottom of the screen you could control the speed and no formatting necessary? Or got to title designer select a 'text' box and type in your text and just insert line break at edge of screen. that wat you could have the 'Proverb' (or whatever it is) scroll as your sermon video plays.
Jim
http://youtu.be/4Rv9L9tgKTU Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

Visit GranPapa64's channel for your YouTube experience of the day!

Good thinking Chris -

Whatever approach is used, there are pros & cons. The downside of exporting from PP is of what PowerPoint does to images in order to keep a lid on file size.

e.g. I started with a 2560x1438 background image & overlaid text in different software.

PowerPoint:
a. Export slide > 960x540
b. Screenshot/Snipping Tool > 1536x864

Word:
a. Screenshot/Snipping Tool 1536x864

Paint.NET (or any graphics software):
a. saved file 2560x1438

Formatted in PD, image resolution is the same as the original - 2560x1438

Here's a video using the images made above & the same text formatted in PD - & also showing vertical & horizontal scrolling, neither of which would be my personal preference. Text needs to scroll quite slowly for comfortable reading. YouTube isn't the best way to judge it, of course. On an HD TV screen, the differences in resolution are significant.

http://youtu.be/XUhQiXvMbHU

Cheers - Tony

Jim - one day, I'd love to be able to begin a post with Well - I am an expert...
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Quote:
Jim - one day, I'd love to be able to begin a post with Well - I am an expert...

Well - I am an expert...

Sadly, not at this.

Like Tony, I'm not so keen on scrolled text, and for my Autocue prompts I prefer timed, bite-sized chunks onscreen. Word has too many useful bits (like word Count and a good spell check) to disregard, so my preferred workflow is :

Author in Word

Import to PowerPoint on a 1920 x 1080 pix slide size, Font 24pt Lexia White on Black

Export slide as .png format and select "apply to all"

I then have a nice numbered stack of .png slides to slot in PD8/10 Library

Slot them on Timeline as a block and set duration of each to longest duration forseeable (say 30secs)

Read each screen at sensible speed in Preview and trim duration as needed

Lay down my base images, use ChromaKey for caption overlays

Produce to preferred output format

It sounds a bit long-winded, but this suits me ! And with practice, it becomes easy and controllable.

I note Tony's Avatar strapline: Apne Munh Mian Mithu Banna (that's Urdu). I'm best from a distance
BigEric
(Like any complex skill, good videography gets easier with practice. And talent. And planning. And a love of the process)

Hi Bigeric and Tony,
My begiining line didn't come out as planned it was supposed to be 'I am not an expert...' but my prooof reader must have missed it LOL
Now I am embarrassed..
Hope you get the effect you want ...
Jim
Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

Visit GranPapa64's channel for your YouTube experience of the day!

This is a very helpful forum!

This is what I have decided to do.. and it works well.

1. Edit my sermon notes so that only the scripture references remain
2. Save edited notes as a text file
3. Import this text file into Powerpoint (conveniently enough, PP treats each new paragraph as a new slide)
4. Apply a Master Slide with preset formatting - basic white font with shadow
5. Change setup to Widescreen
6. View slideshow and take a screenshot of each slide. I downloaded a screenshot utility that automatically saves and names your screenshots however you wish. I did try saving each slide as a JPG from within Powerpoint, but the quality is poor. There is a way to increase the quality but it involves editing the registry. I tried it.. it works, but still not good enough. I will further explore this option later.

Screenshot Utility: http://getgreenshot.org/
Article regarding changing save quality in PP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827745

Originally I stated that everything would be so much easier with word wrap but with the setup above, I think I'm doing less work with more automation. I don't have to cut and paste every passage!

www.rickcowan.com
www.calvarybaptistwindsor.com

Hi Rick -

Glad you have a process sorted out that's working for you.

Another forum member kindly provided me with information about the PP registry hack by PM. I applied it (made the value 300) & I thought it made a very significant difference in quality. What used to be an export of 960x540 became 3000x1687. The good thing about Chris's PP export idea is that the images are already cropped ready for use in PD.

Jim - no need to be embarrassed. We knew what you meant & we all make typos too.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!