[Terry Coolidge]

Wow. Thank you for the incredibly detailed and thorough response. I find your diagrams extremely helpful. Just the kind of visual I was looking for. You are too kind.

[Terry Coolidge]

My Mac iBook has a “NumLock” key (F6) that converts a portion of the keyboard to a numeric keypad. This works for hitting “*” (the “P” key when not in NumLock mode) to add markers while previewing audio. I synced an entire demo reel using this method. As the previous poster indicated, most laptops have the capability to use a portion of the keyboard as a numeric keypad through a function or NumLock key.

[Terry Coolidge]

Thanks for pointing me toward the “Word Processor” preset since that is closer to what I’m looking for. But I’d still like to ask a few questions about it. I spent some time analyzing the settings after I applied the animation preset, and I’m starting to understand some of it (I think).

There is a “Slider Control” (an expression control effect) named “Type-On” that is used by the various expressions that drive this animation preset. I have determined that the slider value controls the “Offset (By Index)” values that reveal the source text as well as animate the “cursor” character. By adding one more character to my source text string than necessary, I can set the end keyframe for the Type-On property to the length of my text string minus one. That way the cursor remains and blinks after typing the desired text string as seen in the Gallery of text animation presets. My question is:

[Terry Coolidge]

Thanks for pointing me toward the “Word Processor” preset since that is closer to what I’m looking for. But I’d still like to ask a few questions about it. I spent some time analyzing the settings after I applied the animation preset, and I’m starting to understand some of it (I think).

There is a “Slider Control” (an expression control effect) named “Type-On” that is used by the various expressions that drive this animation preset. I have determined that the slider value controls the “Offset (By Index)” values that reveal the source text as well as animate the “cursor” character. By adding one more character to my source text string than necessary, I can set the end keyframe for the Type-On property to the length of my text string minus one. That way the cursor remains and blinks after typing the desired text string as seen in the Gallery of text animation presets. My question is:

[Terry Coolidge]

What version of After Effects do you have? Do you have a version since the introduction of text animation presets? Under “Mechanical text animation presets” there is one called “Underscore” that behaves in a way very similar to what you are describing. I’ve actually used this one on several different occasions to get the effect you seem to be looking for.

[Terry Coolidge]

What version of After Effects do you have? Do you have a version since the introduction of text animation presets? Under “Mechanical text animation presets” there is one called “Underscore” that behaves in a way very similar to what you are describing. I’ve actually used this one on several different occasions to get the effect you seem to be looking for.

[Terry Coolidge]

never mind…

re-install did the trick

I thought the registration key field appeared when I first used the effect in AE. Turns out it was part of the installation. My bad.

[Terry Coolidge]

never mind…

re-install did the trick

I thought the registration key field appeared when I first used the effect in AE. Turns out it was part of the installation. My bad.

[Terry Coolidge]

Thank you, Mylenium and Colin. Much appreciated!!!

– Terry

[Terry Coolidge]

Thank you, Mylenium and Colin. Much appreciated!!!

– Terry