Texts and labels > Text timing

With text timing, it is possible to display labels with a delay or following a specific time pattern. Text timing therefore supplements the setting options that you can make under Text animation.

Text timing can be used wherever there is text or captions: on the text object, the video object, the image object and the sound object.
Text timing is carried out by entering control characters and time specifications in the text field. During automatic transcription, the control characters and time specifications are set automatically.

The duration and effect with which text objects or labels are faded in is determined by the text animation setting.
The text can be faded in letter by letter, word by word or line by line. The total duration of the fade-in of all letters, words or lines depends on the set duration (e.g. 2 seconds).
The displayed text is then visible for as long as the object duration and the fade-out setting of the text object specify.

However, additional text timing can be used to ensure that certain words, sentences or paragraphs only appear gradually. You can use the following commands to control the appearance of the text:

Steuerzeichen

Symbol	Chars	Meaning
	\|	The pipe marks a new segment. Creates a new mark in the keyframe track.
	-----	Five hyphens indicate a new block. This is treated as an independent text object. A new block ends (hides) a previous block. This means that only one block can be visible. Creates a new mark in the keyframe track.
	[ s]	Timestamp to start a block or segment at a specific time. If segments or blocks are set without a time stamp, this is set automatically (evenly distributed).

In Stages, the control characters are displayed in the keyframe track of the respective object. The markers can be moved with the mouse and the timing can be precisely adjusted.

symbol-hint

If control characters are displayed in the layout designer, they have not been set correctly or characters are missing. In such a case, check your entries.

The following application examples illustrate how you can work with the control characters.

Example 1: Photo with a duration of 10 seconds, image caption should be visible for a shorter time

Example of text timing for an image caption

A picture has a display duration of 10 seconds. It has a picture caption in the properties on the Text tab. Text timing takes place so that the text is not displayed for the entire duration of the object.

This is done with: |[2s]Image caption-----[8s]

This is interpreted as follows:

| - as a reference to the following segmentation of the text
[2s] - start fading in the text two seconds after object start (with set animation)
Image caption - is the displayed text
----- - a new block (in this case empty) follows
[8s] - Start of the new (empty) block, the first block ends

Example 2: Two lines of text, the second line appears with a delay

Example of text timing on a text object

The two-liner

"We are very pleased:
This is text timing."

is located in a text object with a duration of 10 seconds. If it were not provided with control characters, the entire text would fade in and out as specified by the text animation setting.

However, additional text timing can be used to ensure that line 1 "We are very pleased:" is displayed at object start and line 2 only 5 seconds after object start. This is done with

We are very pleased:
|[5 s]This is text timing.

This means that the first line is displayed immediately at the start of the object. The segmentation is indicated before the "This" with the pipe | (created on the keyboard with < + AltGr or with the button on the text field) and with the time stamp [5 s]. The second line only appears after 5 seconds, while the first line remains. Both fade-ins and the fade-out of the entire object take place with the Fade-in and Fade-out set under Customize Tfx.

Example 3: Show name briefly at the beginning and end of a video

Example of text timing on a video

On a video with a longer duration (in this case 60 seconds), a name should be displayed for a short time after 3 seconds. And again shortly before the end of the video clip.
This label is added to the Text tab. How the text is displayed at the beginning and end is determined by the text animation setting.

Without text timing, the label would be displayed for the entire 60 seconds. The control characters are used to precisely define the fading in of the name.

|[3s] Steffen Binas, AquaSoft GmbH-----[10s]
-----[51s] Steffen Binas, AquaSoft GmbH-----[58 s]

This is interpreted as follows:

A block of text appears from second 3 and ends after 7 seconds because an empty block follows.
A new block with text follows at 51 seconds. A new empty block appears at 58 seconds, which ends the second block.

Text timing on a video in Stages

The text timing can also be adjusted in the keyframe track. To do this, open the keyframe tracks. There you will see the marks that have been created by inserting the control characters in the text field. If necessary, move the text timing marks in the Timeline with the mouse.

Use the live preview on the playhead, for example, to find the optimum insert or the end of a caption for your video and to set the mark correctly in terms of time.