Window Tag

All the content of the RealText file exists between the required opening <window> and closing </window> tags. The window tag takes several parameters:

Window Type

type="generic" A generic window has no preset parameters. You can use it to create any RealText display allowed by the RealText mark-up. You can display and erase lines of text, scroll text through the window, or have text crawl from side to side, for example.

type="scrollingnews" A ScrollingNews window is preset to have text scroll from the bottom of the window to the top at a set rate for the entire presentation. The text does not crawl from side to side, though.

type="tickertape" Text in a TickerTape window crawls from the right side of the window to the left. It can also loop back around to the right. It does not scroll up or down, however. Text displays next to the window's top or bottom edge.

type="marquee" The Marquee window is like the TickerTape in that text crawls from right to left and can loop. It is different in that text is centered vertically within the window.

type="teleprompter" A TelePrompTer window behaves like a generic window except that text arriving at the bottom edge of the window causes the text above it to move up just enough to display the new line.

Background Color

The bgcolor="color" attribute determines the window's background color. The default is black for TickerTape windows and white for all other window types.

Duration

The duration attribute takes the form duration="dd:hh:mm:ss" and specifies the time, relative to the start of the presentation, that this RealText stream stops playing. The default is 60 seconds.

Width

The width="pixels" attribute determines the window width in pixels. The default is 500 for TickerTape and Marquee windows, 320 for other window types. SMIL layout tags can specify a playback region width that overrides the width set here. If word wrap is on, the line length for wrapping corresponds to this width value, not the actual region width. Text centering, however, corresponds to the actual region width set in the SMIL file.

Height

The height="pixels" attribute sets the window height in pixels. The default is 30 for TickerTape and Marquee windows, 180 for other window types. SMIL layout tags can specify a window height that overrides the height set here. This typically does not adversely affect the presentation, however.

Scrollrate

The scrollrate="pixels per second" attribute sets the number of pixels per second that the text moves vertically. It has no effect on TickerTape and Marquee windows. The default is 10 for ScrollingNews windows and 0 for all other window types. For best results, use a scrollrate under 30. (Best values are 25, 20, 10, 8, 5, 4, 2, and 1.) For rates faster than 30, use multiples of 20 or 25, such as 40, 50, 60, 75, 80, and so on.

Crawlrate

The crawlrate="pixels per second" attribute specifies the number of pixels per second that the text moves horizontally. The default is 20 for TickerTape and Marquee windows, 0 for other window types. Again, for best results use a crawlrate under 30. (Best values are 25, 20, 10, 8, 5, 4, 2, and 1.) For rates faster than 30, use multiples of 20 or 25, such as 40, 50, 60, 75, 80, and so on.

Link

The link="color" attribute sets the color of hyperlinks within the text. The default is blue.

Underline Hyperlinks

The underline_hyperlinks="true|false" attribute determines whether hyperlinks are underlined. The default is true.

Wordwrap

The wordwrap="true|false" attribute, which defaults to true, specifies whether word wrap is performed. When word wrap is on, text lines longer than the specified window width wrap to the following line. If it is off, long lines are truncated by the window border. This attribute has no effect for windows that have horizontal text motion, such as the TickerTape.

Loop

The loop="true|false" attribute is available only in TickerTape and Marquee windows, where it defaults to true. When set to true, this attribute tells RealPlayer to buffer all text and redisplay ("loop") it if and when the stream runs dry, which occurs when the text has moved out of the window and no new text has arrived. If the text has looped and new text arrives, the new text displays as soon as the old text has moved out of the window. The new text then becomes part of the loop.

Extraspaces

The extraspaces="use" attribute makes RealText recognize all blank spaces between mark-up tags. If three spaces occur between two words in the RealText file, for example, RealPlayer displays all three spaces. It also recognizes carriage returns and tabs.

If you specify extraspaces="ignore", RealPlayer treats spaces, tabs, line feeds, and carriage returns as does a Web browser, except when they are between the tags. When spaces or carriage returns occur contiguously in the text, RealPlayer interprets them as a single space, no matter how many of them are present. So in this case the three spaces display as one space in RealPlayer. It treats each tab as a single space, though.