Bug 407942

The template title needs to contain "%s" as text. This will then be replaced. However I can confirm that the templates delivered with kdenlive doesn't fulfill this requirements, which is confusing should be changed in my opinion

Hi and thank you for your patience.

Can you please check whether this issue still exists in the latest version 24.12.0?

If yes, please update this report to reflect the new version.

If it works now like you expect it would, you may change the status of this report to RESOLVED - FIXED.

At any rate, this report will be closed if there is no activity for the next 30 days.

Checked steps to reproduce in Version 24.12.0. The issue still persists. No matter what I type into the "Add Template Title..." dialog, the created clips always have the text "Text here" instead.

(In reply to Andrei Rybak from comment #3)

Thanks for your new test and reply.

> Checked steps to reproduce in Version 24.12.0. The issue still persists. No
> matter what I type into the "Add Template Title..." dialog, the created
> clips always have the text "Text here" instead.
The Template Title works such that any text you type in the dialog window replaces "%s" in the template. So, if there is no "%s" in the template but "Text here", only "Text here" is displayed regardless of what you type in the dialog window. This is the case for the default templates that ship with Kdenlive. There are more meant to be used as templates to use for Title Clips to be created with the Title Editor.

In testing I found a few other inconsistencies that need fixing. I set your report to CONFIRMED and changed the version to 24.12.0

Additional issues identified during testing:

1) All default templates should have "%s" instead of "Text here"
2) The text formatting in the default templates should be plain (e.g. no outline) as any font attributes be be overlooked
3) Closing the Title Editor wipes the project monitor (nothing is displayed), only moving the playhead brings the display back (maybe the case only for title clips)
4) There should be a Clip Name field in the dialog window. All title clips created using a template have the same name, and if the name is not changed right away it may become difficult to identify them properly. Same goes for Title Clip creation.

> The Template Title works such that any text you type in the dialog window
> replaces "%s" in the template. So, if there is no "%s" in the template but
> "Text here", only "Text here" is displayed regardless of what you type in
> the dialog window. This is the case for the default templates that ship with
> Kdenlive. There are more meant to be used as templates to use for Title Clips
> to be created with the Title Editor.

Ohhh. So I guess, the real bug is that it's impossible to figure out the "%s" part from the dialog.

Can some kind of help button or message be put into the lower left corner, for example?
Or replace "Text" at the top with "Text with placeholder %s" or something?
Or a tooltip on the main text field input?

(In reply to Andrei Rybak from comment #6)
> Ohhh. So I guess, the real bug is that it's impossible to figure out the
> "%s" part from the dialog.
> 
> Can some kind of help button or message be put into the lower left corner,
> for example?
> Or replace "Text" at the top with "Text with placeholder %s" or something?
> Or a tooltip on the main text field input?
I know it's confusing but the templates are dual use: 1) To serve as a true template for creating new title clips. Technically, any title clip you create and SAVE AS can be used as a template for both use cases; 2) For a Template Title, where you can have additional text or shapes besides the %s placeholder, where the variable text is entered in the text field in the Template Title dialog window

Title Templates and Template Titles are different, albeit similar, concepts, and to increase the confusion work off the same files. Let's see how we can give users better guidance with that feature ...

Git commit 016366d6bb08125b5abc63e508cf8412ba773ffc by Jean-Baptiste Mardelle.
Committed on 20/05/2025 at 08:15.
Pushed by mardelle into branch 'master'.

Template clips: add informative text to make user aware of the %s requirement, use typed text as clip name, update preview live as we type

M  +12   -1    src/dialogs/clipcreationdialog.cpp
M  +31   -2    src/dialogs/titletemplatedialog.cpp
M  +2    -0    src/dialogs/titletemplatedialog.h
M  +14   -1    src/doc/kthumb.cpp
M  +3    -1    src/doc/kthumb.h
M  +3    -0    src/titler/titlewidget.cpp
M  +35   -12   src/ui/templateclip_ui.ui

https://invent.kde.org/multimedia/kdenlive/-/commit/016366d6bb08125b5abc63e508cf8412ba773ffc

Thank you!