What are they?
Templates are more than just the Background you see when using them. Although the Background is applied to the template, the template will hold a lot more information. For the most part, this is ALL of your text settings, including the font style, font size, font color, font attributes (Bold, Underline and Italics), alignment and the size of the text box as well as any additional objects you have (like Reference Text Boxes, other media, and more).
How do I make a new Template?
The process is rather simple and it works the same for Lyrics, Bibles and Text cues. In a nutshell, all you do is modify a template you are currently using and save it as a new one. But I will go a little deeper in the steps below.
1. Insert the type of cue you want to create a template for.
2. Make sure a template is applied.
3. Make sure you select the cue so it appears in the Inline Editor in the center of the workspace.
4. Select a Stanza so it is in the Preview/Edit window.
5. Click on the text. You should now see the text box with handles on all sides and in the corners.
6. Drag the handles to resize the text box. This will resize the text box on all pages except the Title Page which we will cover later.
7. Click in the text area so we can make changes in the "Formatting" section of the Ribbon.
8. In the Formatting section, you can change your font attributes. Just be sure to click the Apply to Cue button after each change to apply the change to the entire cue. Failure to do this step will prevent the changes from being saved. (Note: For Bibles, uncheck the box in the Cue Options section for Verse Numbers in Text before making changes to the text. This makes it easier to edit. Then if you wish, re-check the box before saving the template)
9. If you want to change the Background, click the "Change BG" button in the "Objects" section and follow the prompts.
10. Once you have the cue to your liking. click the Templates tab and click either Save Template (which saves the changes to the current template) or Save Template As (which lets you enter a name and will save a new template based on the changes you made to the cue.
NOTE: If you want a template to be used for new cues you create, make sure the template is applied and click the "Set As Default" button. Keep in mind, this does NOT automatically apply the default template to Lyrics or any other cue that already has a template applied. In this case, the new template will need to be applied/reapplied.
Title Page and Reference Objects.
Although the changes made to the Title Page and Reference Objects can be saved to the template, they are NOT part of the "Main Text" and need to edited separately. If you do not want to display the Title Page, uncheck the Title Page box in the Cue Options section of the Ribbon. For the text in these areas, Highlight the text you want to change and make your changes in the same way as you changed the Main Text. Once the changes are made make sure to click outside of the area. This lets MediaShout know you are done editing. Then save the changes to your template.