Using Animated GIFs and Animated Text

Scrolling or blinking text marquees and animated GIFs can create startling effects in your pages and presentations; however, use them with caution. You've probably seen animated graphics in Web pages, where they can be attention- grabbing and effective if used properly, and annoying and distracting if not.

In addition, note that marquees aren't supported in all browsers; Netscape 4.75 doesn't support them.

Creating a Text Marquee

The program provides its own way to insert a piece of text that scrolls across your Web page, such as "All Hipwaders 50% Off," or "Be Elf-Dander Free Today".

1. Click the Text animation icon in the toolbar.

2. Draw the rectangle where you want the text. If you want the text to scroll, draw the rectangle across the entire scrolling area (Figure 16-11).

   Figure 16-11. Creating a text marquee text box

   

   Be sure to draw it in the correct place in the page; you can drag the borders later to resize it, but you can't move it.

3. Immediately type the text in the rectangle. (This is important; if you click outside the rectangle, it will disappear and you won't be able to reselect it.)

4. Select the text. Use the Character window or the text object bar to format the text.

5. Be sure the text isn't selected, then right-click on the text frame and choose Text. Click the Text Animation tab (Figure 16-12) and enter the appropriate information.

   Figure 16-12. Setting text marquee options

   

6. Click outside the frame; the text will run.

Animated GIFs

If you've surfed the Web much, you've seen animated icons flashing information like "New!" or "Enter Our Spamku Contest!" with text, graphics, or both. You can add these to your Web pages using Impress, following the instructions in Animated GIFs on page 719.