You can use text on your menus for a variety of purposes, including menu titles, button annotations or text-only buttons, and even informational screens such as credits or references. You enter and edit text directly in the Menu Editor window using the text tools on the Encore Tool palette, and adjust the text properties using the Character palette. Once you create a block of text, you can manipulate it as described earlier, along with all the other objects in the menu.
The Character palette contains text styles and layout properties for text used on the menu, both on the menu background and as button layers.
If the menu is selected (i.e., by clicking the window background so that no individual objects are selected), the properties are applied to any new text that is entered on the menu using the Text tool in the Tool palette. If a text block or group of individual characters is selected, the properties apply to that text string. If a button is selected, the Character palette displays the settings for the text layer in the button, and the Properties palette displays the settings for the button itself. You also can select a group of objects and use the Character palette to change individual settings for all the objects at the same time.
The Character palette, which we covered in detail in the previous chapter, is shown again in Figure 5-25.
Note that the following options are now enabled in the Character palette when adding text to menus.
- Color
This applies the selected color to the text. Click the color chip to display the Color Picker dialog.
- Anti-aliasing
This option smoothes the jagged edges of text by softening the color transition at the edges of the characters between and the background pixels. This applies to all the characters in a text block. You can choose from one of the following:
None—No anti-aliasing. Sharp—Applies a minimal amount of anti-aliasing. Crisp—Sharpens the edges of the characters. Strong—Makes the characters appear heavier. Smooth—Makes the characters appear smoother.
To enter text on a menu, select the Text tool in the Tool palette, click in the Menu Editor window to set the insertion point, and begin typing characters. You can enter multiple lines by pressing Enter at the end of each line. When you are done entering text, press the Esc key or click a tool on the Tool palette, and Encore shows the entire text block with a bounding box. You can use the selection handles to resize the text in the block—this has the effect of adjusting both the font size and horizontal scale.
You also can enter a paragraph of text that flows within a bounding box. Click and drag with the Text tool to define the bounding box, and then type the text to be laid out within it. Note that when you use the selection handles to resize the bounding box here, the text does not change size; it reflows to fit as possible within the new box shape.
The Vertical Text tool in the Tool window works similarly, except that the text is rotated right 90 degrees clockwise so that characters run from top to bottom, and lines from right to left. Each is shown in Figure 5-26.
To specify the text style and properties used for the new text, set them in the Character palette before you start typing (i.e., click the menu background with the Selection tool to set the default properties, or set the properties immediately after clicking with the Text tool).
To select text for editing, you can click and drag as usual to select a group of adjacent characters, and Shift-click to extend or reduce a selection. You then can adjust the properties of the selected text in the Character palette.
To change the properties for an entire text block, choose Edit → Select All when editing with the Text tool, or click the block with the Selection tool, or select the corresponding text layer in the Layers palette.
Encore also provides myriad shortcuts for selecting text, similar to a word processor:
Double-click a word to select it.
Triple-click to select a single line within a paragraph.
Quadruple-click to select an entire paragraph.
Press Shift-Ctrl-Right Arrow to extend the selection one word to the right.
Press Shift-Ctrl-Left Arrow to extend the selection one word to the left.
Press Shift-Ctrl-Up Arrow to extend the selection from the insertion point to the previous paragraph.
Press Shift-Ctrl-Down Arrow to extend the selection from the insertion point to the next paragraph.
To adjust a block of text while editing it, hold down the Ctrl key to change the text cursor into a selection arrow, and then drag the text to reposition it.
Drop shadows are particularly useful because they can be used to make text and graphics more readable against busy menu backgrounds (both video or stills) by placing them against a contrasting color that stands out from the background.
Encore provides a built-in drop shadow effect to add a sense of depth for both text and graphics objects on the menu. To enable the drop shadow feature, select the object or objects and choose Object → Drop Shadow. Encore displays the Drop Shadow dialog, shown in Figure 5-27.
Figure 5-27. Use the Drop Shadow dialog to add a drop shadow to text or graphics elements on the menu.
This dialog has the following settings:
- Drop Shadow
Check this option to enable or disable the drop shadow effect.
- Color
This option determines the color of the drop shadow that appears behind the text. You can click the color box to display the Color Picker dialog, which enables you to select the shadow color.
- Opacity
The opacity percentage determines how opaque or blended the color is with the background.
- Angle
The Angle option determines the lighting angle for the shadow, from 0 degrees left to 90 degrees down to 180 degrees right.
- Distance
The Distance option specifies the pixel offset of the shadow from the object.
- Size
The Size option dictates the amount of pixel expansion from the size of the original object.
- Spread
The Spread option gives the percentage of expansion of the shadow boundaries.
- Preview
You can check this box to preview the drop shadow effect in the Menu Editor window while adjusting properties in the dialog box.