Text Formatting
The RealText file allows for two basic types of text formatting:
display and layout. Display tags specify when text appears or disappears,
while layout tags control how the text that appears actually looks
in terms of color, size, font, and so forth.
Display
<time/>
The <time/> tag determines when a text component
appears and disappears relative to the start of the presentation:
<time begin="dd:hh:mm:ss" end="dd:hh:mm:ss"/>
Text with an end value is erased when the specified end value is
reached. Otherwise it stays active until the presentation ends or
the entire window is erased with <clear/> (see
below)
All text following a <time/> tag has the specified
begin and end values until new values are given. Once you specify
an end time for a text component, you must specify an end time for
all following components. For example, the following text would
not display properly:
<time begin="23" end="55"/>Display
at 23 seconds in.
<time begin="56"/>Display at 56 seconds in.
Because the second line does not include an end value, the previous
end value of 55 still applies. The second line cannot be displayed
because its begin time is later than its end time.
<clear/>
A <clear/> tag removes all preceding text,
even text that has an end time that has not yet elapsed. Consider
this example:
<time begin="5"/>They all lived happily.
<time begin="10" time end="20"/>And so
our story ends.
<time begin="15"/>
<clear/>Goodbye!
The second line of text is set to end at 20 seconds. The <clear/>
tag appears 15 seconds into the presentation and clears this line,
however.
The <clear/> tag does not reset text appearance.
For example, if text appears bolded before the <clear/>
tag, it remains bolded after the <clear/> tag.
To replace a line of text with a new line every few seconds (as
in photo captions), do not use end times. For each new line of text,
set the appropriate begin time followed by a <clear/>
tag.
Text Layout and Appearance
Much as in HTML, the following tags let you define the layout of
RealText in the RealPlayer window.
<p> ...</p> and <br/>
The <p>...</p> and <br/>
tags add space between text. Note that <p> is a pair of tags
(place your text between the opening and closing tag), while <br/>
is a single tag that closes with a forward slash.
<center>...</center>
The <center>...</center> tags center the
enclosed text. Text is centered according to the actual window width,
which may differ from the width attribute.
<pre>...</pre>
The <pre>...</pre> tags work the same as
in HTML. Text tagged with <pre> uses the Courier
font at the current size. For example, a preceding <font
size="+1"> makes the preformatted text one size
larger than the default font size. Line breaks, spaces, and tabs
are preserved, with tabs defaulting to 64 pixels for 16 point text
(the normal point size). Tab spaces are determined by dividing the
text height by 2, then multiplying by 8.
<b>...</b>
The <b>...</b> tags display the enclosed
text bolded.
<i>...</i>
The <i>...</i> tags display the enclosed
text italicized.
<u>...</u>
The <u>...</u> tags display the enclosed
text underlined.
<font>...</font>
Like the HTML <font> tag, the RealText
<font> tag can contain several attributes:
<font size="+4" face="courier" bgcolor="red"
color="yellow" > ...text... </font>
| 
