Adding titles to a sequence using the Type tool

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In video editing, the term title refers to any text that appears over the top of a video clip or still image. There are many different types of titles used in video editing, including opening credits, ending credits, lower thirds, subtitles, and more. They can be as simple as a line of text appearing on screen, or more complex with special effects added.

There are multiple ways to add titles to a sequence in Premiere Pro. We can use the Type tool to add a basic title, or we can search for a template in the Graphics Templates panel to use in a sequence. We’ll practice adding titles using both methods in this course — in this section, we’ll use the Type tool to add text that appears at the beginning of each dance to indicate which dance is being performed.

Understanding safe areas

When creating a video, we should keep in mind how our audience will be viewing our completed video. There are many different devices someone could be using to watch the video, such as a smartphone, computer monitor, or television, and depending on the screen, it’s possible that some of our video’s content could be cut off at the edges. Because of this, video editing programs like Premiere Pro include guides that indicate areas where it’s safe to include text and action in a scene, as shown in the diagram below:

Diagram of the safe margin guides, described in the following paragraph.

The outer rectangle in the diagram above is the action safe zone — we want to make sure any of the important on-screen action in our video happens within this area. The inner rectangle is the title safe zone, and any titles we add to the sequence should be contained inside this zone to ensure they’re visible and readable.

Before we start adding titles to the sequence, let’s turn on the safe margins in the Program Monitor to help guide us as we add titles to the sequence. These guides are only visible in Premiere Pro, and won’t display in the exported video. We'll also display the Properties panel, which contains tools we can use to edit the appearance of the titles we create.

To display the safe margins over the video preview, in the Program Monitor,
Right-Click the video preview, Click Safe Margins

To display the Properties panel, on the Menu bar,
Click Window, Click Properties

Now we’re ready to start adding titles to the sequence.

Using the Type tool to create a title

For this video, we want to have text appear near the lower left side of screen at the beginning of each dance clip that indicates the name of the dance being performed, so we'll use the Type tool to accomplish this. This type of title, where text and graphics appear in the bottom third of the screen, is referred to as a lower third title. We can create these lower thirds using the Type tool. Once the text is added to the screen, we can change its appearance using the Properties panel.

We’ll start out by creating a lower third for the Waltz clip. We want the title to appear on screen when the voice-over starts, so we’ll position the playhead where the clip w.mp3 begins. Then, we’ll use the Type tool to add the title to the screen, and after it’s added we’ll change the title’s font and size using the Properties panel.

To position the playhead three seconds in from the beginning of the waltz.mp4 clip, in the upper left corner of the Timeline panel,
Click , type: 00;00;03;00 Enter key

NOTE: The playhead should be lined up with the beginning of the clip w.mp3 on the A2 track at this point.

To activate the Type tool, in the Tools panel,
Click

NOTE: In the Captions and Graphics workspace, the Tools panel is located between the two panel groups in the top half of the Premiere Pro workspace.

To position the cursor where we want to add the title, in the Program Monitor,
Click inside the title safe area near the gold planter pots in the video
To add the title's text, on the keyboard, type:
Waltz

To select the text, with the Type tool still active, in the Program Monitor
Double-Click inside the word Waltz
To change the title’s font, in the Text section of the Properties panel,
Click , type: Forte Enter key

NOTE: If the font Forte isn’t installed on your computer, feel free to choose a different font that is installed on your computer.

To change the title’s size, underneath the font drop-down menu,
Click , type: 150 Enter key

At this point, the title should look similar to the following image:

Still image from Program Monitor, displaying the text "Waltz" about two-thirds of the way down on the left side of the screen, inside the title safe guide lines.

We now have our first lower third added to the timeline. However, it's not on screen for very long. Let's fix this.

Adjusting a clip’s timing

As mentioned previously, the lower third clip is only on screen for five seconds — and when we add transitions to the title clip later, it’ll be on screen for even less time. To fix this, we can adjust the amount of time the clip appears on screen by changing its duration using the Speed/Duration dialog box. Let’s use the Speed/Duration dialog box to change the duration of the Waltz title clip to 7 seconds.

To start changing the Waltz title’s duration, on the Video 2 track in the Timeline panel,
Right-Click the Waltz title clip, Click Speed/Duration…
To change the duration of the title, in the Duration field of the Clip Speed/Duration dialog box,
Click the timecode, type: 00;00;07;00 Enter key

The duration of the Waltz lower third is now seven seconds long.

Creating the remaining lower thirds

Now that we have the first lower third created, we can use it to quickly create the lower thirds for the other dances. We’ll copy the Waltz lower third, then move the playhead to the beginning of the voice-over clip for the foxtrot demonstration and paste the copied clip at that location on the timeline. Once it’s in place, we’ll replace the text “Waltz” with “Foxtrot”. We’ll repeat that process for the other dances after adding the Foxtrot lower third.

The following video walks you through the process of copying and pasting the Waltz lower third to create the remaining lower third titles.

NOTE: The following video was recorded using Premiere Pro 2024, and some interface elements in this video will not match what's currently displayed in Premiere Pro 2025 – however, the process demonstrated in this video is exactly the same in both the 2024 and 2025 versions of Premiere Pro.

This video walks you through how to complete Step 1 in the following accordion.

Description of the video:

[music] In this video, I’ll demonstrate how to create the remaining lower third titles in the dance video that we’re creating in Premiere Pro as part of the exercise Adding titles to a sequence using the Type tool. First, I need to activate the Selection tool, since the Type tool is currently active. To do this, I’ll click on the Selection tool in the Tools panel. Next, I’m going to ensure that the Waltz lower third clip is selected by clicking on it in the V2 track on the timeline. We can tell when a clip is selected on the timeline because the clip will have a white border around the outside. With the clip selected, I’m going to copy the clip using a keyboard shortcut. On my keyboard, I’ll press Control-C to make a copy of the clip. Now I’ll position my playhead where I want to paste the clip. Specifically, I want it to display on screen at the same time as the voice-over clip f.mp3 starts playing, so I’ll position the playhead so it lines up with the beginning of the second clip on track A2. This will be three seconds in from when the clip foxtrot.mp4 starts playing. Once the playhead is in position, I’m ready to paste a copy of the lower third clip. To do this, on my keyboard, I’ll press Control-V to paste the clip. I now have a copy of the Waltz lower third that starts just after the foxtrot clip starts. I need to change the text of this lower third from Waltz to Foxtrot. To start the process, I’ll move my playhead back a few frames so it’s positioned in the middle of the clip I just pasted – the word Waltz will appear in the Program Monitor, on the left side of the frame. Next, I’ll double-click on the word Waltz. This will highlight the word in red, indicating it’s selected and editable, as well as switch the active tool from the Selection tool to the Type tool. With the word Waltz selected, now I’ll type the word Foxtrot. I’m going to repeat the process for the remaining dances. For the sake of time, I’ll speed things up a little bit here. I also still have the Waltz clip copied, so I don’t have to re-copy the clip every time – I can just go ahead and paste the clip where I need it. I’ll create the lower third for Tango next. First, I’ll put my playhead in position at the start of the third audio clip on the A2 track of the timeline, three seconds after the video clip tango.mp4 starts playing. With the playhead in position, I’ll press Control-V on my keyboard to paste the copied lower third on the V2 track. I’ll move the playhead back a few frames so I can see the text of the pasted lower third in the Program Monitor, then I’ll double-click on the word Waltz and type in Tango. I’ll do the same thing for the chacha – position the playhead at the beginning of the fourth audio clip on the A2 track, paste the clip using the keyboard shortcut Control-V, then move my playhead backwards so I can see the text of the lower third. Finally, I’ll double-click the word Waltz and type in ChaCha. I’ll repeat those steps one last time for the Swing dance clip – position the playhead at the beginning of the last audio clip on the A2 track, paste the copied lower third, then move my playhead back so I can see the text of the lower third in the Program Monitor. Once I can see it, I’ll double-click the word Waltz in the Program Monitor, then type in Swing. I now have lower third clips for each dance’s title on the V2 track on the timeline, starting 3 seconds after the accompanying dance video clips start playing. [music]

Activate the Selection tool, if necessary.
To select the Waltz title clip, if necessary, on the V2 track in the Timeline panel,
Click the title clip
To copy the selected clip, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + C
To position the playhead where we want to paste the title, on the A2 track in the Timeline panel,
Press & Drag the playhead to the beginning of the f.mp3 clip on the A2 track

NOTE: The playhead's position will be three seconds in from the beginning of the clip foxtrot.mp4.

To paste the copied title, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + V
To view the pasted title in the Preview Monitor, on the timeline,
Press & Drag the playhead to the left a few frames until the title’s text is visible
To change the text from Waltz to Foxtrot, with the Type tool active,
Double-Click the text Waltz in the Program Monitor, type: Foxtrot
Repeat steps c-f for the Tango, ChaCha, and Swing lower third titles, lining up the beginning of the title with its corresponding voice-over clip on the A2 track.

To move the playhead to the start of the sequence, on the keyboard, press:
Home key
Use the playback controls in the Program Monitor or press the Spacebar to preview the sequence.

To save the project, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + S

We now have titles that indicate the dance currently being performed in the video.

Adding titles to a sequence using the Type tool

Available Files

Understanding safe areas

Step 1. Turn on the safe margins in the Program Monitor.

Step 2. Display the Properties panel.

Using the Type tool to create a title

Step 1. Position the playhead three seconds in from the beginning of the waltz.mp4 clip.

Step 2. Use the Type tool to add the text “Waltz” to the lower left side of the screen in the Program Monitor.

Step 3. Using the Properties panel, change the font used for the title to Forte, and the font size to 150 pt.

Adjusting a clip’s timing

Step 1. Change the duration of the Waltz title to seven seconds long.

Creating the remaining lower thirds

Step 1. Create the lower thirds for the remaining dances in the sequence.

Step 2. Preview the sequence.

Step 3. Save the project.