Text Sequence

Showing a timed series of texts in one text shape.

The airport scene with its selected Text Sequence block in the Timeline panel and the transition settings and subtitle items in the Attributes panel.

Text sequence shows a series of texts in one shape, one after another, each for its own time. Each text in the series is an item: it comes in with the Enter transition, stays fully shown while it's read, and goes out with the Exit transition.

It works on texts and texts on a path. A block holds one schedule of texts, so it takes a single shape.

With it you can:

  • Show changing text in one place: such as subtitles or the steps of an explanation, without stacking several text shapes.
  • Choose how items come and go: type them in and out, or fade them.
  • Time each item: in the Attributes panel, or with its handles in the Timeline panel.

Creating it

Text Sequence in the Text Animation group of the Actions panel.

Adds a block that shows a series of texts in the selected shape.

  • Operation:
    1. Select one text or text on a path on the board.
    2. In Animation mode, open the Text Animation group in the Actions panel and choose Text Sequence.
  • Result: a selected block starts at the playhead with one item, the text the shape shows there. This holds whether it's the shape's first text block or follows another one.
    • Typing in: the item types that text by character at the board's base text speed.
    • Duration: the item lasts long enough to type the text and read it at the board's base read speed.
    • After its time: the text stays visible, because Hide on finish starts off.
    • Continue from its end: the playhead moves to the end of the block, so the next block you create starts where this one stops.

The text sequence block in the Timeline panel

One Text Sequence block containing 12 subtitle segments, with gaps between them.

In the Timeline panel:

  • Text sequence blocks appear in indigo (), like the other text blocks.
  • Each item is a solid segment of the bar, and the fainter stretches between segments are the delays.
  • A segment is thicker where the item's text is fully shown and thinner at its ends, during the Enter and Exit transitions.
  • Dragging the bar between the handles moves the whole block.

Handles

Drag a handle to change the timing:

  • Big circles: one at each end of the bar.
    • Start circle: sets the block's start time and the first item's Duration.
    • End circle: sets the block's end time and the last item's Duration.
    • Other items: they stay where they are.
  • Small circles: one at the start and one at the end of each item. At the ends of the bar, the big circles take their place.
    • Between items with a delay: there are two small circles, the end of the earlier item and the start of the later one.
    • Between touching items: their circles overlap, and dragging there moves the start of the later item.
    • Start circle: sets the item's Delay and Duration. The item's end stays in place.
    • End circle: sets the item's Duration and the next item's Delay. The next item stays in place.
    • Limit: an item can't overlap the items next to it.
  • Vertical lines: inside an item's segment, they mark where its text is fully shown.
    • Enter line: after the item's start. Drag it right to make the text take longer to come in.
    • Exit line: before the item's end. Drag it left to make the text take longer to go out.
    • Every item follows: Enter and Exit apply to every item, so the matching line on every item moves too. In Speed mode, a typed side's line moves further on a longer item.
    • Read speed adjusts: the items keep their start and end, and their Read speed changes to fit.
    • Limit: Enter and Exit together can't take longer than the item whose line you drag.
    • When a line shows: only when its transition takes time. With the default Exit of 0, items show only the Enter line. The last item has no Exit line while Hide on finish is off.
  • Jump to a handle: double-click a circle or a line to move the playhead to it.

On the board

The block has no indicator or handles. You set it in the Attributes panel and the Timeline panel.

  • Edit an item on the board: while it's visible, open the shape for editing and type.
  • Between items: during the delay between two items, the shape shows nothing.

Before and after the block

  • The shape's own text: the sequence shows its items over it without changing it, so deleting the block brings that text back.
  • After the block ends: the last item stays, unless Hide on finish is on.
  • A text animation after it: it types the sequence's last item instead of the shape's own text. See Text Animation.

Attributes

Subtitle transitions set to Opacity for 0.1 seconds, with Hide on finish enabled.

A text sequence block's settings are in the Text Sequence section of the Attributes panel.

  • Transition Mode: whether Enter and Exit are set as a speed or a time.
    • Speed: a multiplier relative to the board's base speeds. This is the default.
      • Typed transitions: they use the base text speed, so a longer item takes longer.
      • Opacity transitions: they use the base opacity speed, so every item fades for the same time.
    • Time: seconds, the same for every item.
  • Enter: how each item comes in. It defaults to Character at a speed of 1, the base text speed.
  • Exit: how each item goes out. It defaults to Character at 0, so an item disappears at once.
  • Hide on finish: what happens to the last item when the block ends.
    • Off: the last item stays, without an exit transition. This is the default.
    • On: the last item goes out with its Exit transition and is hidden.

Enter and Exit each take a transition and a value:

  • Opacity: fades the whole item.
  • Character, Word, Line, or Paragraph: types the item in, or erases it, by that unit.
  • Value: how fast, or for how long, the transition runs, depending on Transition Mode.

The items

The opening subtitle cues listed in playback order, each with its own timing.

Each item holds one text and the time the shape shows it. The section lists the items in the order they play.

  • Edit an item's text: select its text to open it, and type.
  • Change the order: drag an item by its grip.
  • Delete sequence item: removes the item. A block keeps at least one item.

Adding an item

The Add sequence item button below the last subtitle cue.

Adds an empty item at the end of the sequence.

  • Operation: choose Add sequence item.
  • Needs: room for one more item before the next text block on the shape.
  • Result: the new item goes last, empty, with the duration of the item before it.
  • Tip: for subtitles, split a long speech across several items so each cue is short enough to read.

Item timing

Delay, duration, and read speed beneath the first subtitle cue.

Each item has three numbers:

  • De (Delay): the wait after the previous item ends, in seconds.
    • Changing it moves the item and keeps its duration.
  • Du (Duration): how long the item lasts, in seconds, transitions included, at least 0.01.
  • Rs (Read speed): multiplier relative to the board's base read speed, which is in characters per second.
    • It counts only the time the whole text is fully visible, excluding the enter and exit transitions.
    • Duration and Read speed follow each other: changing one sets the other.
    • Editing the text keeps the Read speed and sets the Duration again from the new length. If the longer item would overlap another text block, its timing stays and the Read speed changes instead. Changing an item's Delay or Duration moves the items that follow.

Actions

Delete, Cut, Copy, Paste, Reassign, and Create Block Pause in the Actions panel.

With a text sequence block selected, the Actions panel offers these block actions: