Graphics

Is there a text function to auto follow ?

I want a First Name in one font and Sur Name in another

Do I need to use scripting ?

Is there a guide to scripting objects and functions available ?

I came across a great tutorial on DataLinq - http://xpression.rossvideo.com/videos/

Is there any more of these - as I am new to Expression ?

Thanks

Joe

Hi Joe,

If you're using the sequencer, you could use brackets {} to define which font to use.

If you look in your Scene Fonts Library, you'll see that every font has a number. By filling in that number you can specify what font to use.

So to give an example:

{1}John {2}Doe

This will put John in the font which has number 1 and Doe in the font that has number 2.

Good luck!

Kenneth

#XPression

My plan is to use Excel DataLinq with two different fields - 'John' and 'Doe'

or it might be 'Jonathon' and 'Doe'

Joe

#XPression

I can't really tell how it works with the Excel Datalinq, as I have never used it before so I would have to check and get back to you.

Unless someone else knows the answer already?

Kenneth

#XPression

You can also put the name of the font between the brackets e.g. {RedFont} if you had a font called "RedFont"..

This also works through datalinq. There is a checkbox where you configure the datalinq for each text object where you can tell it whether or not it should parse the font tags on not.

#XPression

My real question is about auto follow not switching fonts

I have two strings from excel and want the second one to auto follow the first

I have achieved this with scripting but wondered was there a simpler way

Again can someone point me to some scripting samples

Thanks for all the replies

Joe

#XPression

Hey guys, thanks for the tips. I'm also new to xpression and am building L3rd crawl of tweets and would like the "tweet" text field to auto-follow the user name (which would change in width size). Producer didn't like the auto-squeeze of the long usernames. Is there an option or script that can accomplish position the "tweet" text field on the X-axis?

#XPression

Hi Steve,

There is a way to do this using scripting:



dim txtObj as xpTextObject

dim usernameWidth as double

dim startPosX as double

startPosX = 150 ' you can change this value to whatever value you want

' get the length of the username

Self.getObjectByName("UserName", txtObj)

usernameWidth = txtObj.getTextWidth(txtObj.Text)

' adjust the position of the tweet depending on the length of the username

Self.getObjectByName("Tweet", txtObj)

txtObj.posX = startPosX + usernameWidth + 20

' The 20 in the line above is just to leave a small space in between the username and the tweettext.



That should do the trick, however, if you're using animations it could be that the textfields will appear to jump from one position to the next. So keep that in mind.

Good luck

#XPression

Hi Joe,

To elaborate on your question.

In XPression there is only one way in which you can have textfields auto-follow eachother, and that is if you're using a crawl. There you could put the first name in one scene and the last name in another and then when you play the crawl, the fields will appear to auto-follow.

Other than that, you'll need to use scripting and then you could use the example above.

Best regards,

Kenneth

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THANKS KENNETH! That script worked PERFECTLY! Thank You.

#XPression

Though on the Xpression wishlist side... it would be nice if next to AUTO SCALE in the TABS & OPTIONS there was a AUTO FOLLOW box too. Maybe version 6? lol....

#XPression