Hotkeys

The sixteen hotkey buttons in the Status window, and their corresponding keyboard keys, are the main controls for stepping through text at preprogrammed fade speeds.

The default hotkey assignment programs the numbers 1 through 9  to produce fades of one through nine seconds. The letter keys A, S, D, F, and G produce double-cuts of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 seconds respectively.  

A double-cut means that the next title in sequence will automatically appear, where a single-cut hotkey will only trigger a single step -a fade up or down.

To change the hotkey assignments and fade times, go to the Settings window and click on the "Hotkeys" tab. It is possible to use the space bar as a hotkey: enter a space in the "key" column and "[sp]" will appear to indicate a space bar press.


Performance:

First, some important TitleDriver terms:

The selected title

When you click on a line of the Operator's window list of titles, that title becomes the selected title. That is the title that will appear in the "Preview" tab, and that will always be the NEXT title to appear on screen.


The current title

The text that is currently on screen is the current title. As a title is fading up, its number appears in the Status window in parentheses. The title number remains in the Status window until the text has completely faded down. You can always tell if any text is currently on screen by seeing that the green bar in the status window is showing "full text."


Single-cut and Double-cut 

Besides fade time, it is important to remember which hotkeys are programmed to execute a Double-cut. A double-cut will always advance to the next title in sequence. A single-cut will execute only a single step: if the display window is blank the text will fade up, and if there is text on screen it will fade down and stop.


Control key to speed up slow fades:

If you find that you need to speed up a slow fade while it is in progress, you can press the control key. This will momentarily speed up the progress of the fade, while maintaining a smooth look on screen.


If you accidentally hit a Hotkey twice:

If you hit a HotKey while a fade is in progress, the keypress will not be accepted and the status window will flash a red indicator. As soon as the current fade has completed you may hit a hotkey. The software does not try to "catch up" when the operator's keypresses come too fast.


The Return key double-cut function:

The Return key always executes a double-cut at the default fade times, as set in the Settings window, or by format commands upTime and downTime.

This function is disabled when the "Edit text"  tab has been selected.

Then, using the upTime and downTime format commands, you could pre-program each title's fade speeds, using only the return key to step through the titles.



All Display windows act simultaneously:

When you are producing more than one text/translation in performance, all of the text windows respond exactly the same way, fading text up and down at the same speed. There is no way to vary or delay the timing of a single Display Window's text for a given title.


Auto-GO sequences:

Using the format command autoGO it is possible to program an automatic sequence. The autoGO command is followed by a time in milliseconds (thousandths of a second). The parameter is referred to as the countdown time. A window will appear to display the status of auto-GO sequences.


It may be most useful to prepare a separate data file, and place the autoGO command in the format commands of the first title. That way the entire file will automatically advance at the default speed indicated, and you can always add an autoGO command to an individual title to adjust the autoGO countdown time for that title only.


It can be confusing when first programming sequences like this regarding where to put the required format commands. For example, if you want a title to appear on screen briefly, you must select the next title in the sequence and enter the autogo command there.


Auto-GO sequences can be interrupted by using the clear key, which —as always— will fade down whatever text is on screen, and will cancel the auto-GO countdown in progress. Also, hitting any HotKey during auto-GO countdown the auto-GO sequence will be halted. 


Auto-GO sequences will not execute when the "Edit text & format" tab is selected, or when clicking on a title out of sequence in the Operator's list area. 


Auto-GO sequences always advence using the default (Return key) double-cut fade times, unless Downtime and Uptime format commands specify otherwise.