Dynamic text

Dynamic text is an on-screen text element for animation that displays properties about the map. The on-screen text changes based on the properties during animation playback. The following three types of dynamic text presets are available for animation:

• Camera viewpoint
• Map Time
• Map Range

You can add dynamic text to your animation for properties such as the following:

• Terrain elevation or water depth
• Date values, such as monthly changes in crime hot spots
• Precipitation records over the year
• X,Y position tracking, such as a ship's transit or hurricane path

Dynamic text elements use dynamic tags, but you can combine both dynamic and static tags into a single element to customize what you want to see. A preset displays a predefined amount of formatting, but you can type into the existing element and insert or remove a piece of text, depending on what you want to show.

Viewpoint

To add dynamic text for the camera's viewpoint, do the following:

1. Select a single keyframe from the Keyframe Gallery or select a group of keyframes, for example, keyframes 2 through 5.
2. In the Overlay group on the Animation tab, click the gallery drop-down arrow and click Viewpoint .

   A text box appears on screen in an editable mode for the keyframes you selected.

3. Move, format, and edit the text as desired. Changes that you can perform include the following:
   • Add static text that does not change during playback.
   • Remove tags you do not want to appear.

   The default text that appears reports the full camera position (X, Y, and Z ) and rotation values (heading and pitch).

   This is what you see when the overlay is first added to the view:

   

   This is what you see after applying the overlay:

   

4. Click the close button in the upper corner to close on-screen editing and apply the overlay to the view.

Map Time

To add dynamic text synchronized with the time slider, such as a date, you need to ensure that at least one of the layers in the map has time properties enabled. To add a Map Time overlay, do the following:

1. Select a single keyframe from the Keyframe Gallery or select a group of keyframes, for example, keyframes 2 through 5.
2. In the Overlay group on the Animation tab, click the gallery drop-down arrow and click Map Time .

   The map time preset is added to the view as an on-screen editable text box for the keyframes you selected.

3. Move, format, and edit the text as desired.
4. Click the close button in the upper corner to close on-screen editing and apply the overlay to the view.

Map Range

To add dynamic text synchronized with the range slider, such as temperature or floors of a building, you need to ensure that at least one of the layers in the map has range properties enabled. To add a Map Range overlay, do the following:

1. Select a single keyframe from the Keyframe Gallery or select a group of keyframes, for example, keyframes 2 through 5.
2. In the Overlay group on the Animation tab, click the gallery drop-down arrow and click Map Range .

   The map range preset is added to the view as an on-screen editable text box for the keyframes you selected.

3. Move, format, and edit the text as desired.
4. Click the close button in the upper corner to close on-screen editing and apply the overlay to the view.

Examples of customized dynamic text

Sometimes what is displayed in an overlay preset requires customization. Using overlay on-screen editing or the Animation Properties pane, your text, image, and dynamic text overlays can be formatted. When modifying dynamic text overlays for animations, you can use all the tag options except for those provided for layouts.

Note:

Angle brackets (< >) and dyn type="animation" are necessary as this triggers the text to update dynamically with the keyframes.

Edit a viewpoint overlay

Selection is an important part of editing an overlay element in animation. The overlay must be active or selected to edit, and only one overlay can be active at a time.

The viewpoint overlay adds all the camera's properties as dynamic text. You can delete the pieces you don't need and add any preferred text. One scenario is an animation depicting the path of the ascent up Mount Everest. Displaying the elevation values from the starting base camp to the summit can add useful and interesting information. For example, to display only the camera's z-property, you'd make the following changes:

1. Set the animation to the current time your overlay will display. For example, you can drag the current time indicator (red vertical bar) on the keyframe gallery, or type into the Current Time text box for the animation on the Animation tab.
2. Select the overlay you want to edit from either the Overlay Timeline or the overlays list in the Animation Properties pane.

   Any unavailable overlays in the list are not visible at the current time but are still part of the entire list of overlays that exist for the animation.

3. Optionally, in the Overlay group on the Animation tab, click Select Next to cycle through selecting the next visible overlay in the animation.
4. In the Overlay group on the Animation tab, click Edit Text to access on-screen editing for the overlay. When you're finished, click the close button to commit the changes made through on-screen editing.
5. To edit an overlay using the Animation Properties pane, hover over the list of overlays to give focus to the one you want to edit. Click the Edit button to activate an editing text box. Click the Edit button again to commit the changes from the Animation Properties pane.

   Your changes are reflected in the view as you type in the edit box in the Animation Properties pane.

To customize the viewpoint display to include a title and only the elevation value, you would make the following changes:

Original tags for Viewpoint dynamic text	Example of changes	Example of edited tags	Displayed text
<dyn type="animation" property="camera.x" units="dms" decimalPlaces="0" preStr="X: "/> <dyn type="animation" property="camera.y" units="dms" decimalPlaces="0" preStr="Y: "/> <dyn type="animation" property="camera.z" preStr="Z: "/> <dyn type="animation" property="camera.heading" preStr="Heading: "/> <dyn type="animation" property="camera.pitch" preStr="Pitch: "/>	Add a static title or description of what the values represent. Remove all other values and keep only the camera's z-property.	Meters: <dyn type="animation" property="camera.z"/>	Meters: 11,650.37

Edit a map time overlay

The map time overlay adds the start and end time properties as the default dynamic time text. You can delete pieces you don't need and add any preferred text. One example, shown here, is displaying a history of earthquake incidents symbolized by magnitude range. To display a specific date format and add a title, you would make the following changes:

Original tags for Map Time dynamic text	Example desired changes	Example of edited tags	Displayed text
<dyn type="animation" property="startTime" format="short|long"/> <dyn type="animation" property="endTime" format="short|long"/>	Add a title or description of what the values represent. Format the time property to only show the year as a one year span.	Earthquakes: <dyn type="animation" property="startTime" format="yyy"/> to <dyn type="animation" property="endTime" format="yyy"/>	Earthquakes: 1988 to 1989

The images below show the before and after editing of the dynamic time text for an animation.

Other custom formats are included in the table below. For a complete list, see Dates, Time, and dynamic text.

Format	String	Text example as it appears on screen	Additional notes
Default	<dyn type="animation" property="startTime" format="short|long"/> <dyn type="animation" property="endTime" format="short|long"/>	12/26/1988 12:00:00 AM 12/26/1989 12:00:00 AM	Top angle brackets (< >) denote minimum time ("startTime"). Bottom angle brackets (< >) denote maximum time ("endTime").
Custom	<dyn type="animation" property="startTime" format="short|long"/>	12/26/1988 12:00:00 AM	Entire objects in angle brackets (< >) can be removed. The "endtime" has been removed.
Custom	<dyn type="animation" property="startTime" format="short"/>	12/26/1988	format="short"
Custom	Earthquakes <dyn type="animation" property="startTime" format="short|long"/>	Earthquakes 12/26/1989 12:00:00 AM	Any text can be added to the beginning or end if outside the angle brackets (< >).
Custom	<dyn type="animation" property="startTime" format="|h:mm:ss tt"/>	12:00:00 AM	format="|h:mm:ss tt"/>
Custom	<dyn type="animation" property="startTime" format="yyy"/>	1989	format="|yyy"/>

Edit a map range overlay

The map range overlay adds the minimum and maximum range properties as the default dynamic range text. You can delete the pieces you don't need and add any preferred text. One scenario is water column data that is thematically colored to show the level of dissolved oxygen at different ocean depths. For example, if you want to display only the minimum value, update the decimal places for accuracy, and add a title or description about what the value represents, you would make the following changes:

Original tags for Map Range dynamic text	Example changes	Example of edited tags	Displayed text
Min: <dyn type="animation" property="rangemin" decimalPlaces="0"/> Max: <dyn type="animation" property="rangemax" decimalPlaces="0"/>	Add a title or description of what the values represent. Update the value to show two decimal places for accuracy. Remove maximum value because it does not change in the animation.	Dissolved Oxygen > <dyn type="animation" property="rangemin" decimalPlaces=" 2 "/> mgL	Dissolved Oxygen >0.9mgL

The images below show the before and after editing of the dynamic range text.