Title Options

The Title Options Inspector lets you change the attributes of selected titles in the Storyboard/Timeline. You can make changes to multiple titles at once by selecting several titles in the Storyboard/Timeline, and then making the desired modifications in the Title Options Inspector.

A title can have multiple fonts, styles, colors, paragraph alignments, etc. and span several lines of text. You can modify text attributes using the standard Mac OS X font panel or the menu command available in the Format menu.

To edit a title, double click it in the Stage. The title frame will switch from a thin frame to a thicker frame with two resizing handles on the left and right edge. The text is already selected so you can start typing. If you want to reflow the text, click on one of the handles to resize the width of the title's frame.

Format

Click the font buttons to show/hide the Font panel and Color panel. Click on the alignment buttons to change the alignment of the selected text. If a title is currently being edited (thick selection frame), each paragraph in a title can have a different alignment. If a title is not currently being edited (thin selection frame) the alignment is applied to the entire text of a title.

In the Font panel you can use advanced typographic features like shadows, ligatures, etc. The Font panel also includes controls for changing kerning and leading. Click on the + or - buttons to increase or decrease kerning or leading of the selected text. Press the Shift key to go in 10x increments.

Select the title and click the Color button to display the Color panel. You can select colors or you can create transparent titles by reducing the visibility in the Color panel. Please note that this will affect the entire title. You cannot change the visibility of individual characters separately.

In some cases it may be easier to prepare your text in TextEdit and save it as an RTF file, which is then imported into FotoMagico as a title.

Mask

Use a mask to crop an image to a specific frame. This cropping is non-destructive (i.e. the image file is never modified) so you can change your mind about the cropping at any time. Click on the button to reveal a popover that contains the options like mask type, size, edge softness. The popup menu to the right contains several convenient shortcuts to assign a mask to a layer.

When a layer has a mask, a switch appears in the Stage next to the zoom and rotation jogwheels. Switch it to "Mask" if you want to modify the zoom or rotation of the mask rather than the zoom or rotation of the image itself.

The aspect ratio of a mask is determined by the size parameter. However, the absolute dimension of the mask as it appears on the Stage also depends to the Zoom value.

Note that masks can be animated (just like an image layer can be) to achieve various interesting effects.

The popup menu to the right contains several useful commands to quickly assign a mask to a layer.

Visibility

Use the Visibility controls if you don’t want a title layer to be visible during the whole duration of a slide. Drag in the darker triangles (located on the outside) to restrict visibility to a certain range. Drag the lighter triangles (located on the inside) (creating a ramp in the curve) to fade-in and fade-out the title layer. The yellow sections in the bar represent the incoming and outgoing transition intervals.

Dragging the upper horizontal black line downward lets you change the layer opacity. Clicking anywhere on the white bar opens a popover that lets you enter the values numerically.

The popup menu to the right contains several useful presets: Reset, Fade In, Fade Out, Fade In/Out.

Animation

When animation is enabled in the Slide Options Inspector, you can use the Animation controls to fine tune animation timing. The darker triangles (located on the outside) determine when an animations begins and ends. The lighter triangles (located on the inside) adjust the fade-in and fade-out of the animation. Refer to Fine Tuning Animation for more details.