QUICK SUMMARY Title clips are too verbose, slows workflow and creates really big project bins when there's a lots of dynamic text (overlaid subtitles) with changing contents, effects, positions. Add a text object, which similar to other editors, allow you to copy/paste text objects and changing them, without affecting other instances of it. Example of having a text object with effects and can copy/paste: https://youtu.be/H1LdSmObFhg?t=257 SUMMARY I've tried editing a clip a little bit ago and found one part of kdenlive which is a pretty big problem for me regarding text in-clips. Essentially the only way to add text to a clip is to create a title clip which is a unique object in the whole project. When I do edit clips I generally add text/titles over the videos and have to change it a LOT (sometimes I even highlight words/parts of words). This would then force me to create a title clip in the project bin, copy it who knows how many times, paste it in the timeline and then edit one at a time. If I by any chance I copy one and paste it a little bit later (as in to the right) in the timeline and edit the text, it affects the initial element. In other editors I did have the experience of just creating a `text object`, editing the text and putting effects. I could then copy/paste it how many times without an issue. I could also transform it without any worries of affecting other instances.
Hi Zastrix Arundell, thank you for submitting this feature request / wish list item. Allow me to make a few comments. > Add a text object, which similar to other editors, allow you to copy/paste > text objects and changing them, without affecting other instances of it. A Title Clip is already a text object. Any effect you add to a title clip **in the timeline** only applies to that instance; any effect applied to the title clip **in the project bin** affects all instances of that title clip in the timeline > Essentially the only way to add text to a clip is to create a title clip > which is a unique object in the whole project. Isn't this what you want? A text object? > This would then force me to create a title clip in the project bin, copy it > who knows how many times, paste it in the timeline and then edit one at a > time. > > In other editors I did have the experience of just creating a `text object`, > editing the text and putting effects. I could then copy/paste it how many > times without an issue. I could also transform it without any worries of > affecting other instances. I don't understand how this is any different from the way Title Clips work in Kdenlive: You create a Title Clip (your `text object`), edit the text, add effects to it in the project bin, and then copy and paste it how many times you want it. The Transform effect is applied to each instance of the title clip in the timeline without affecting other instances (except for the effects applied to it in the bin). You could also use Title Templates and Template Titles (two different concepts!). Please refer to the Kdenlive Manual (docs.kdenlive.org) for more information (the manual is searchable but also has a chapter about Title Clips). I am putting this report on hold for the time being. Please come back here with additional information or corrections if I misunderstood what you are trying to achieve.
(In reply to Zastrix Arundell from comment #0) > QUICK SUMMARY > Title clips are too verbose, slows workflow and creates really big project > bins when there's a lots of dynamic text (overlaid subtitles) with changing > contents, effects, positions. One thing I forgot the mention is that you can have folders inside the Project Bin, and you can have multiple bins. Just a suggestion: Put all your title clips into their own Bin and use folders within that bin to structure or categorize them. You may also want to explore the tagging and filtering feature of the bin to make the many title clips more manageable ;-)
> I am putting this report on hold for the time being. Please come back here > with additional information or corrections if I misunderstood what you are > trying to achieve. Hi Bernd, thank for the info. I didn't know that you can do individual/group effects, that's nice but I don't think that does resolve the issue. The issue wasn't specifically only about the effects you can add to the title clip but rather being able to change the textual content inside of it easily without unexpected behaviour (at least for me). Let's say I have this sentence: `Lorem ipsum odor amet` in a video. And I want to display each word, word-by-word in the video. I would, in kdenlive, have to create one title clip in the project bin, add the effects to it (everything's fine up until now) and then copy/paste it 4 times and modify the content like so: * First one would be `Lorem` * Second would be `ipsum` ... * Fifth one would be `amet` And I would then have to import all of them to the video as a group or one by one. If I, let's say, copy the last title clip in the timeline and paste it in the timeline (so now the 6th title clip) and change the textual content, it would change the content for 5 *and* 6. This is an insane time sink when there's 1000+ words and not to mention how easy it is to mess up the content of another referenced title clip. Now let's say I'm using premiere. I would right-click the video and press add text, or whatever, the entry-point doesn't matter. Afterwards I would write `Lorem`, press enter to finalize the object creation, add effects and I'd be done for the first instance. After that I would copy/paste it from the timeline directly into the timeline 4 more times and just double click the timeline and change the textual content. If I want to add a 6th word, I would just copy/paste the 5th word in the timeline and modify the textual content. The 5th word won't change in the end video. The project bin would be clean as I don't have to add 1000+ words in it. Also I would also save time by not having to open a new window, select the title clip element, change the text there and press save. If you need more info, there's a link I've posted in the opening comment which shows how fast (and easy) it is in premiere to achieve this.
(In reply to Zastrix Arundell from comment #3) > Let's say I have this sentence: `Lorem ipsum odor amet` in a video. And I > want to display each word, word-by-word in the video. Write the whole text in the title clip and apply the Typewriter effect in the title editor, select Word-by-Word and you are done. If you want more control over when what word is displayed, use the Alpha Shapes effect and keyframes to adjust the shape's position and size accordingly. > If I, let's say, copy the last title clip in the timeline and paste > it in the timeline (so now the 6th title clip) and change the textual > content, it would change the content for 5 *and* 6. This is indeed a problem but only if you copy a clip from the timeline and paste it to the timeline. You need to *duplicate* the clip in the Project Bin, and then drag the new copy to the timeline. Then you can change the content (by double-clicking on the title clip in the timeline or in the bin). > This is an insane time sink when there's 1000+ words and not to mention how > easy it is to mess up the content of another referenced title clip. Only if you don't do it properly in the bin. I understand that this is a learning curve for someone coming from another editor. But that is normal and unavoidable and applies to any editor you are switching to. > Also I would also save time by not having to open a new window, select the > title clip element, change the text there and press save. Yes, that is a known inconvenience. The title editor was a quick and dirty implementation at the time. AFAIK, a usable framework was there already, and was adopted to save time. Unfortunately, the title editor has not received any TLC over the last decade(s), and even an attempt to rewrite it was abandoned due to time and resource constraints. If you want to discuss this further please use any of the official forums on Discuss (https://discuss.kde.org) or Mastodon/Telegram/Matrix, or other channels like r/kdenlive (https://www.reddit.com/r/kdenlive/). Feel free to chat me up on any of those social media.
Thanks for the answer. I probably won't open anything additional as AFAIK this is the proper channel. There is a reddit post which does ask for basically the same thing I'm describing here and there was no answers from devs afaik: https://www.reddit.com/r/kdenlive/comments/1akbii2/kdenlive_is_great_but_im_not_using_it_all_because/ > This is indeed a problem but only if you copy a clip from the timeline and paste it to the timeline. > You need to *duplicate* the clip in the Project Bin, and then drag the new copy to the timeline. > Then you can change the content (by double-clicking on the title clip in the timeline or in the bin). Let me just quote this from a previous comment: > This is an insane time sink when there's 1000+ words And the typewriter effect isn't what I need. I gave a random example of single-word text. What if I only partially want to put down a sentence? Or even wanted to partially put down lots and lots of sentences for a video of 1+ hours? > This is indeed a problem but only if you copy a clip from the timeline and paste it to the timeline. > You need to *duplicate* the clip in the Project Bin, and then drag the new copy to the timeline. Huge timesink and bad UX. Just because it is currently the way of doing that, doesn't mean that it should be the only way of doing that. > I understand that this is a learning curve... There shouldn't be a learning curve for putting down text. I understand I can achieve whatever I want with text using titleclips, but it's just a bad implementation forcing me to use other editors whenever I slightly need to do anything with text because kdenlive is just vastly inferior for this use-case. Again, this isn't a report where I'm asking for support to learn to use something, it's a feature request for a really missing (and basic) feature.
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Just setting this to reported, so it's not automatically closed.