Text Layer vs Captions in PS6

[JBD Profile Private message]

Is there any reason one would use Captions rather than Text Layers in PS6?

On the Photodex web site it says each has its place but I can not see any reason one would use Captions rather than Text Layers.

I have been playing with Text Layers and it seems pretty powerful!

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

I use the regular captions when "extra power" is not necessary.
I find them easy to work with, and pretty straightforward.

I use text layers only when I need special effects: to position captions beneath other layers, to use them as masks, and if I need tilting effects.

The text layers have some bugs that appear when you least expect them, so watch out when you use them

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Text layers have all the normal access to captions AND the access that an ordinary layer would have. Lots of Features!!! If you need a caption to be beneath (such that it's all or partly hidden), you would want to use a text layer. Likewise, captions have no tilt feature. So, If you need a caption to "tilt" with an image layer, text layers are you ticket. Captions do not blur... but text layers do.

Text layers provide options not previously available to captions. It's a very powerful feature. However, they come with limitations at this time...

Now, like Mona said, there are a couple of bugs associated with these text layers ... so use them sparingly until they fix them in one of the next releases. They can use up resources which they never release . . . and, in time, they reach a point that can cause the program to crash. It's one of the reasons I don't use them more often than I do.

Dale

[JBD Profile Private message]

Thanks Guys!

I have not had one problem with text layers -- of course my computer is so old, I am not sure if it knows what a bug is.

I do make short projects - max 3 to 4 min long and because I know my computer resources are limited, I save often and exit the program and then come back in. This release any resources that the programmers neglected to release.

Way back in the day Dale -- before you were born -- all errors were fixed by rebooting. Probably did that to release things stuck in memory.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

I grew up with DOS, including the days when DOS was new. My first computer (which I built myself from parts I bought at a computer store) ran off of floppy disks ( I had a dual FD system with a color monitor)... that lasted something like 2 months. Then I upgraded to two 20MB hard disks. I wrote my own DOS manual and ran a computer support organization that I grew from some 20 unclassified and some 30 classified systems into over 600 systems, classified and unclassified. There was no inter- or intra-net system at the time ... all standalone systems. Yep, I know a little bit about those things.

Text layers have a tendency to grab GDI objects and will not release them. Some of the resources are grabbed simply by passing your mouse cursor over the text layer. Other objects are nabbed during each edit. You'll never know that the resources are grabbed (and not released) until the system reaches 10,000 gdi objects ... and ProShow will immediately crash.

Dale

[JBD Profile Private message]

Dale,

I have NOT had any problems using Text Layers. The only crashes I get with PS6 are usually Photodex Presenter if I am using Text Layers or not.

I guess the conclusion is that when the Text Layer bugs are fixed, I do not see any reason for Captions - one thing the programmers would not have to be concerned about when they go to a 64 bit program.

I go back to CPM days too. First computer was an Atari then got a NEC CPM machine with dual 8" floppies (still have the floppies!). In those days Programmers were sharper. They did not have much memory to work with (32K) so they had to make sure memory was cleared before another module was loaded. Now they rely on hardware!

I know this is nothing new to you but I thought I would state it anyway.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

There was another computer at the time I was associated with but can't remember the danged thing. It had all of 28kb of ram. While the other computers were loading programs via tape drive, it was loading via a floppy disk. I saw the benefit immediately ... no tape drive for me (tho it was a backup vehicle in later years). It was cp/m as well. A friend came by one day all gushing about the PC jr and how it was just like some other device he was used to in the main frame arena (little did he know....). He probably rued the day he got that one ... when he found out more about it. I went PC compatible from the get-go (IBM PC).

I remember 10" floppy disks for the Wang word processor too. I worked on that darned thing for the VA. It had two different memory addresses for the screen display. Odd.

Having a single text layer that you then don't mess with much is NOT likely to muck things up. It's when you are working with it over and over again or with multiple slides that each have text layers ... that's because EACH takes its own resources ... and that can add up. 1zy 2zy stuff isn't likely to cause problems ... but for people like me who tend to stress the program to its limits regularly, it can be a real problem.

Captions came first and will probably stick around for the foreseeable future. They're simple to handle or deal with. Text layers can completely take over the role of the caption but can require a little bit more work depending on how you're using them. That's be cause captions are ALWAYS on top of EVERYTHING while text layers keep their place in the layer queue (meaning that they can be hidden or obscured by other layers... so you have to consider those other layers when using text layers if you do NOT want them obscured or hidden).

Dale

[Betty Profile Private message]

Dale,
You really brought up old memories, especially with the Wang.

~Betty

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Don't think they were 10 inch floppies - 8 inch were the standard bigger disks (never saw any 10 inch). In 8 inch, you could get both soft sectored and hard sectored disks (as well as double sided double density). I still have a number of boxes of them downstairs as well as DSDD 8 inch drives AND my old CP/M system. Have to see if it still boots one of these days - how could you possibly use 64k of memory as well as the 1.2 megabytes of storage on a DSDD floppy. I currently have 7 TB of disks spinning behind me (7 billion floppies equiv) in my main machine (which has 12 GB of RAM). My Nikon camera has 40GB of storage in it currently and shoots about 6 images/second with each image about 10 megs - that is about 10 DSDD floppies/second. Science lurches on !!

mikey

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Mikey, you're right, they were 8" disks for the Wang. I always remembered them as 10" tho ... they were huge! Too, I never saw anything like them after that. I was talking to the guy on the fone and he walked me through the procedure to restart the system. I knew next to nothing about computers or disks associated with them at the time. I botched the first attempt and I think I overwrote what was on that first disk ... no problem he said, there was a backup. So, I nabbed the backup and put it into the machine. This time, things went w/o a hitch and I got the machine reloaded and restarted. It was an experience that taught me a few things about computers, that's for sure. Another one of those learning moments.

The few Wang's we had were all replaced at my workplace by Z-100's and Z-150s from Zenith. These were partially IBM PC compatible computers, using a version of DOS called Z-DOS. What the differences were I can't remember. I do know, however, that it was NOT 100% PC-DOS compatible. We used a word processor call WordStar (now there's a blast from the past!) and a database program called dBase II. It was an amazing time, given what we'd used previously. We also has a TRS-80 (which we called a trash 80, Tandy didn't appreciate that much tho).

The first hard disk storage I used was a huge 10MB hard disk from HP that a plotter ran for creating our presentation charts. It could take a long time to build AND plot the slide for use on the overhead projectors. This H/D must have been a couple of feet long and at least 6" to 8" tall and wide ... complete with built-in fan. Gads that thing was slow.

Dale

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

I remember (and used) Dbase II and Wordstar both - Wordstar caused a bunch of folks problems when people started using interrupts for things like the keyboard etc. Seems Wordstar knew where it had left things on the stack and was grabbing them when it needed them even though it is not legal to grab things no longer actually on the stack. Oh well, any more of this and I will end up crying over my old hardware downstairs

mikey

[Solitude Profile Private message]

I like using text layers if I want to "jazz a slide up a little". I prefer Captions if the slide has enough style, movement etc. Sometimes less is more and like Mona said, text layers can be quirky.

Tanya

[Betty Profile Private message]

I remember one time we asked the staff at one of our regional offices to make a copy of the floppy disk and they sent us a 'xerox copy' of the 8" disk.
I also remember calling it a snake pit with all that coax cable, then sometime later the invention of the BNC to coax balun converter and we were able to begin streaching the limits.
Then we had those huge and heavy disk pacs before they came out with those self enclosed pacs...memory is getting weak

~Betty

[JBD Profile Private message]

Learned something all the experts probably already know.

In the Caption List Menu (Gear Icon) you can turn a Caption into a Text Layer sooooooooooooo it is probably best to design using Captions and convert it into a text layer if you need those capabilities.

Started this discussion with a simple question but some of the answers are really making me feel OLD! OMG 8in Floppies!

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Nah. It depends on what you are doing that'll decide whether you start with a text layer or a caption. However, converting a caption to a text layer is quick and easy.

Dale