The QuickText tool allows you to quickly create non-moving text, as well as scrolling, animated and waving text effects. Simply click on the QuickText tab at the bottom of the BEYOND window and you will see the QuickText tool. The main features of the QuickText tool are shown and described in the picture below.

As shown, you simply enter some text, pick a color and an effect and then either Show it now, or drag and drop the text to a cue for playback later.

Text entry

The text can be any characters, and the function even works with Chinese character sets.

Increasing or decreasing the size of the projected text

To decrease the size, repeatedly click on the button labeled Smaller. To increase the size, repeatedly click on the button labeled Bigger.

Increasing or decreasing the speed of the effect

To decrease the speed, repeatedly click on the button labeled Slower. To increase the speed, repeatedly click on the button labeled Faster.

Selecting an effect

The large, central area within the QuickText tab allows you to select an effect that will be applied to the text. There are many effects, such as simple scrolling text, effects that will impress the text onto a rotating cone or sphere, effects that simulate flag waving, etc. Simply click on the desired effect and you will see the result in the preview window.

Modifying the text effect further

After entering text and choosing an effect, you can modify the text even further, by changing the font or going into the Advanced Text editor window.

If you click on the T Edit… button, this will open the Advanced Text Editor window which will give you full access to change the text or create a new text effect.

If you click on the A Font… button, this will allow you to choose a new TrueType font, or a Laser font. The Laser fonts are single-trace fonts which generally allow for faster scanning. However, the Laser fonts only have the most common (Latin) characters.

Note that clicking on the T Edit… or A Font… buttons must be done last. If you click on a different effect, it will reset the font and text setting.

Modifying the overall size, position and rotation angle

The four buttons under the text preview window allow you to control the size, position, and rotation angle of the text effect. These work in exactly the same way as the Live Performance Tools within a cue. Simply click down the mouse over one of the controls, and then drag the mouse either upward or downward to affect the image.

Displaying text momentarily

To display the text that you have created, simply click on the Show it now button.

Saving the QuickText to a cue

You can save the QuickText to a cue for more permanent storage or for use later. Simply drag and drop the text preview window (or the QuickText tab itself) to a cue. Everything about the QuickText will be saved into the cue, including the size, position, rotation, speed, color and font as seen in the text preview window.

Supports only a single line of text

The QuickText function was only meant to create a single line of text. Applications requiring more than one line of text will need to use the Text tool within the Frame/Animation editor.