Text properties cannot be animated

Symptoms

If one or more of these match what you are seeing, you are on the right page.

• •The timeline shows only one track for a whole paragraph
• •Per-character rotation or baseline shift cannot be found
• •Switching modes prompts an unexpected dialog
• •Character mode makes the composition sluggish

Causes and fixes

Ordered from most to least likely. Work down the list — each cause is paired with what to do about it.

1. 1

   The text is in Block mode.

   Switch to Line, Word or Character mode. Line splits on hard returns and soft wraps, Word splits on spaces with punctuation attached to the preceding word, and Character splits per glyph.

2. 2

   The mode switch dialog was cancelled.

   Changing modes on text that already has animation prompts to Convert, Reset or Cancel. Convert redistributes existing data to the new granularity; Reset clears it and starts fresh.

3. 3

   The property is only available at a finer granularity.

   Font Size and Baseline Shift animate per character in Character mode. In Block mode only the element-level transform and fill properties are exposed.

4. 4

   Character mode is generating too many tracks.

   Long strings in Character mode create many active animation tracks. Use the stagger system rather than keyframing each character, and prefer Word or Line mode where the difference is not visible.

5. 5

   The text was converted to outlines.

   Conversion replaces the text element with vector paths, and the typography animation system no longer applies. Keep a hidden duplicate of the original before converting.

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