How to Add Text to Video in Windows Movie Maker (Easy Way)

Adding Text to Video

Adding text to your video is a perfect way to make make people understand a particular scene of your story. However, you may be wondering how to add text to video

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to add animated text to video, you can read this post to find out an effective and simple way to add titles, captions as well as credits.

If you search the internet, you will find many video programs on the internet that can help to add text to video. They all have their specific features, pros and cons, as well as market price. 

Windows Movie Maker, a free and simple video editing software released by Microsoft, can help you easily make your own cool videos including birthday videos, wedding videos, YouTube videos, and more. You might be interested in this post: 4 Steps to Easily Make A YouTube Video with Pictures

Download the best free video editing software.

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Recommend article: Windows Movie Maker 2020 Free Download + 6 Things To Know.

Now, let’s see how to add text to video Movie Maker. Windows Movie Maker can help you add titles, captions as well as credits to your video. For more details, please keep reading.

Part 1. How to Add Title to Video in Windows Movie Maker

Titles, often seen at the beginning of a movie, are important cinematic elements that set the stage for the action to come. Now, try the following steps to add title to a video and make your title stand out.

Step 1. Download Windows Movie Maker.

Download the best free video software and then install it on your computer.

Step 2. Import Files.

Import your videos and pictures from your PC, USB drive, SD card, digital camera or other devices.

How to import files to Windows Movie Maker? Now, you can find the detailed steps by reading this post: How to Add Pictures and Videos to Windows Movie Maker.

Step 3. Edit Your Video.

For instance, you can add transitions and effects to make your video look more outstanding. Or, you can split video, cut video, trim video, and remove video to delete some unwanted footage to just use the best parts of a clip in your movie.

Recommend article: How to Split and Trim Video in Windows Movie Maker (Latest Guide).

Step 4. Add Title to Video.

Navigate to the place in your project where you want to add the title.

Note: you can add multiple titles to your movie and add multiple titles to the same video clip. Titles can be inserted before, after, and in between clips in your project.

Click the Home tab and choose Title found in the Add section.

You can see a black page and an editable caption slide in front of the clip you’ve selected.

Now, change the default text from, “My Movie,” to something more meaningful to you. If the text isn’t selected, click it in the Preview window.

The text item is independent of the Title clip. Therefore, you can move it to another clip.

Step 5. Edit the Text.

As soon as you add a Title clip you’ll be taken to the Format tab on the ribbon. Now, you can format the text as you see fit. If you have ever used Word, this should be familiar to you. You can see your changes in the Preview window below.

Font

The first thing you can do is to change the font family and size, change the text color, and so on. You can see your changes in the preview window below.

Paragraph

The paragraph helps you form your text. You can also change the Transparency by moving the slider. This will be more useful for Captions.

Adjust

In the Adjust group you are able to change the background color, Start time, and Text duration values.

Changing the duration of the Title clip might be a little bit confusing because the free Movie Maker offers two durations to deal with: the Video duration and the Text duration. By default, both of them will last for 7 seconds.

The Video duration refers to the time that the entire title clip is displayed. If you want to change this, you have to click the Edit tab beneath Video tools and then specify how long the entire Title clip will be, as shown below.

The Text duration sets the length of the time for the text to display (in seconds). Normally, the Text duration is equal to or less than the Title/Video clip. If the Text duration is shorter than the Title clip, the text will fade away before the Title clip disappears and transitions to the next clip in your timeline.

You can also change the start time value to make the text appears shortly after the Title clip is displayed. In general, you can directly drag and drop the text element on the timeline to quickly alter the start time.

If you want to change the color, you need to press the Background color and choose a color. Note: this can only be done with Title clips as well as Credits clips.

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Part 2. How to Add Caption to Video in Windows Movie Maker

Captions can tell viewers what they are seeing in a video clip. They are text elements without a dedicated clip or colored background. You can add a caption at any point in the Track. 

Select the part of the clip that you want to add a caption to.

Select the Caption button, which is on the Home tab on the ribbon, just below the Title button, in the Add section.

Windows Movie Maker will insert a text box over the top of an existing clip.

Type the text for your caption in the text box located in the Preview Pane.

Now, you can edit and format your caption just like you do with the text element that was associated with the Title clip. Or, you can click and drag the caption around the screen to move it to another point in your movie.

You cannot set a background color for Captions because the background of the caption will always be the photo or video clip beneath it. But, you can change the Transparency by moving the slider.

Related article: How to add subtitles to video.

Part 3. How to Add Credits to Video in Windows Movie Maker

You can add credits to your video to show the director information, soundtrack information and other details.

Step 1. Click Home.

step 2. Click the Credits drop down menu to bring up the page selections. From here choose Credits, Director, Starring, Location, or Soundtrack and Movie Maker will automatically add these pages to the end of the sequence.

For instance, if you choose Credits, it creates a text element with the word, “CREDITS,” and a space for you to enter names.

If you choose Director, it inserts, “DIRECTED BY,” and leaves an area for you to enter your own name.

step 3. Input your desired text in the credits slides.

step 4. Edit your credits like editing title clips.

The credits card doesn’t have to stay at the end of the project. You can click and drag it to another location. Like the Title cards, it can be before, after, or in between clips.

Video Tutorial – How to add text to video in Windows Movie Maker

3 Useful Tips about How to Add Text to Video in Movie Maker  

Text Effects

After you add text to video in Windows Movie Maker you can add text effects to make it more perfect.

Windows Movie Maker offers 24 different text effects from the classic Emphasis or Scroll to the more ornate Cinematic or Contemporary style. These text effects can be applied to Titles, Captions and Credits.

Try the following steps to add text effects:

• Select the text element on your timeline.
• Choose an effect from the gallery in the right-hand section of the Format tab under Text Tools. Before choosing, you can see a preview for each effect as you hover over it.

If you choose a text effect where the text fades in, you won’t be able to see it when your playhead is right at the beginning of the text element. Don’t worry. You just need to advance your playhead to see the text just as it will appear in that point of time in your movie.

Also read: How to Add Text to Video Online? Free Ways! | 2020 Guide

Limitations

Although it is very easy to add captions, credits and titles in Windows Movie Maker, the feature is limited. For instance, you cannot add a caption on top of a credit or title screen and you can’t have more than one text style in any clip. To be specific, you cannot make the word, “Credits,” to appear in bold, but the rest of the text to be in italics or normal font weight.

Add Multiple Titles and Credits

You not only can add multiple titles and credits to your movie as you want, you can also can move them around to anywhere you want in the timeline, including in the middle of your movie. Therefore, you can use them to divide sections in your movie.

You can also add transitions from the Animations tab to title clips and credits clips just like you do with normal video clips.

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Summary

As you can see, it is very easy to add text to video Movie Maker.

If you have any questions or problems about how to add text to video in Windows Movie Maker, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or directly send us emails via [email protected]. We will solve it as soon as possible.