How to Use Advanced Title Editing in PowerDirector
Backdrops, anchor points, and the animated title templates.
Updated Aug. 21, 2026 · 5 min read
In a hurry? Use the advanced title editing quick guide instead.
The Quick Edit panel handles what a title says and how it looks. The advanced panel handles the things that make one hold up against real footage: a backdrop so the words survive a busy background, an anchor point so rotation happens where you want it, and the Motion Graphic Titles that arrive already animated.
- Double-click the title, then click Advanced at the bottom right of the panel.
- On the Properties tab, tick Backdrop and choose a shape, then a solid color, gradient, or image.
- Under Position and Size, tick show anchor point and drag the green pin to move what the text rotates around.
- For a ready-animated title, use the Motion Graphics category in the Titles tab.
Steps to Use Advanced Title Editing
Prefer to watch? Here's the whole thing in a five minute video, or follow the written sections below.
Step 1: Open the Advanced Panel
Double-click the title on the timeline to open the usual editing panel, then click Advanced at its bottom right. What opens is a bigger window with the same settings plus a good deal more, organized across Styles, Properties and Animation tabs.
Step 2: Put a Backdrop Behind the Text
A backdrop is a shape sitting behind the words, and it is the reliable fix for text that keeps disappearing into the footage. It is also what gives step numbers in a tutorial, product names in an unboxing, or a warning in a short clip their own visual space. Open the Properties tab and tick Backdrop.
Backdrop Type is the shape, and the row of thumbnails shows what each one does to the text block. Pick on how much room the shape gives your longest line, since a shape that fits two words rarely fits five.
The dropdown below decides what fills that shape, and the three options are genuinely different tools:
| Fill | What you set | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Solid Color | One color, from the palette, the picker, or the eyedropper | You want the text to read cleanly and get out of the way. Sample a color from the footage with the eyedropper and the backdrop stops looking bolted on |
| Two Color Gradient | Two colors plus a Direction | A flat panel looks dead against moving footage, and a gradient gives it depth without pulling attention off the words |
| Image | Any picture from your computer | The backdrop is doing branding work, like a texture or a logo plate, rather than just making text readable |
Underneath sit size, opacity, curve radius and position. Curve radius is the one people miss: it rounds the corners, and a few units of it is usually the difference between a backdrop that looks designed and one that looks like a rectangle.
Step 3: Move the Anchor Point
The anchor point is the fixed spot a clip turns and scales around. By default it is the center, which is why rotating a title spins it in place. Under Position and Size, tick show anchor point and a green pin appears in the preview; drag it and rotation starts happening around wherever you put it. Move it to the left edge of a line of text and the title swings like a hinged sign rather than a spinning card.
Step 4: Align to the Canvas
The Align Objects menu in the top right of the preview snaps the title against the frame: centered, left, right, and the vertical equivalents. Worth using instead of dragging by eye, because centered-by-eye is visibly not centered as soon as the video is next to anything that is.
Edit a Motion Graphic Title
Some templates in the Titles tab are animated graphics with text built into them, and they have their own category: Motion Graphics in the sidebar. Drag one to the timeline and double-click it as usual.
The panel that opens is laid out differently from the standard title editor, because the template decides the structure. At the top you get a text area per text element in the design, each with its own font, size, bold and italic. You can still edit the words straight in the preview.
Graphic Group is the part that makes these worth using: every shape in the design gets its own color block, so a template built in someone else's colors becomes one built in yours without touching the animation. Blend mode, size, position and rotation for the whole thing sit at the bottom.
Titles That Come With Sound
Some title templates carry a sound effect, marked with a small sound icon in the lower left corner of the thumbnail. Drag one to the timeline and an audio track appears underneath it, which is a surprise the first time it happens.
To lose the sound, or move it on its own, right-click the clip and choose Extract Sound from Template. That separates the audio onto its own clip, after which you can delete it, move it, or change its level like any other audio.
Haven't got PowerDirector yet? Backdrops and anchor points are what make a title hold up against real footage rather than float on it.
Download PowerDirector Free →FAQ About Advanced Title Editing
A backdrop, on the Properties tab. Border and shadow help, but they only outline the letters; a backdrop puts a solid shape behind the whole text block, which is what holds up when the footage behind it changes brightness mid-shot.
Because the anchor point is at the center, which is the default. Tick show anchor point under Position and Size, drag the green pin to wherever the rotation should pivot, and the title turns around that instead.
That template includes a sound effect, which the sound icon in the corner of its thumbnail was telling you. Right-click the clip and choose Extract Sound from Template to separate the audio, then delete it or treat it like any other audio clip.