How to Use Templates in PowerDirector

A template is somebody else's finished opening, with the text, motion graphics, filters and stickers already arranged so they agree with each other. You swap in your own material and it stays coherent, which is the part that takes longest when you start from nothing.

The Templates room sorts them by occasion, and there is a search box above the grid. Drag the one you want onto the timeline.

A dialog asks whether to open the Video Intro Designer. Say Yes and you get the guided editor described below. Say No and the template goes straight onto the timeline as its individual assets, which you then edit the ordinary way.

Say Yes the first time. The Designer is faster for the things you almost certainly want to change, and it still hands you the individual assets at the end.

Along the bottom of the Designer is a row of icons. The first, a clock, sets the template's duration. The next replaces the background clip, and its menu offers three sources: Import a Media File..., Use a Color Board for a flat color, and Download Media from Getty Images... if you have nothing suitable to hand.

The same row crops, rotates, flips horizontally or vertically, and applies color filters to whatever you put in.

Hover over any object in the preview until the cursor turns into a cross, then click it. Its own adjustment menu opens, with a small timeline showing that object's start and end that you can drag.

For an overlay object the first icon swaps it for a different one. Beside it sit opacity, border and shadow, entrance and exit animations whose length you set by dragging their range, and layer order, copy and delete.

Click an empty area or the X to close the menu again.

Click the text in the preview and type. For motion graphic text the left panel opens with font and color per field, plus the graphic's color and the overall size and position.

You are not limited to what came with the template. The T icon adds your own text, either regular or motion graphic, and you can add images and overlay objects too. To put a panel behind text so it stays readable over busy footage, open the text adjustment menu and tick Enable Backdrop.

The music note icon opens the audio side. Import your own track or take one from the online library, then drag the yellow band to choose which part of it plays. That section is matched to the template's length, so you are picking the best few seconds rather than trimming afterwards. Fade in and fade out are here too.

The speaker icon opens Volume, which is where a common surprise lives: Always mute the video's audio is ticked by default. If your background clip has sound you want, untick it and set Video volume; Background music volume controls the track you just chose.

Save Template at the bottom left opens a Save As dialog: name it, and drag the slider to pick the frame you want as its thumbnail. It then appears under Saved Templates, which is how a template becomes your own house style rather than a one-off.

Share Template sits beside it. That is a different job from saving, and this guide stops at keeping the template for yourself.

Then Add to Timeline. Back in the editor the template arrives as individual assets, so anything the Designer did not cover you can still do the ordinary way.