Changing title background?

Question

PRE 7
If I start off by dragging title generic1_title to the timeline (as a blue swirly background), I get a title added to my project as expected.
Question: If I don't like the background behind the title text, can I change it somehow? I can't seem to find a way to modify the background of the included titles.
Bruce.

Answer 1

Bruce,
I do not know of any way to change the
i Background
image in a preset Title. Unfortunately, I have never found any way to edit a PRTL (Title) file - Photoshop (and nothing else that I have found) will not do it.
However, the best way to do this is to find a a "blank" Title, where you like the style of the text and use it over any "background" image that you want, thus creating the same effect.
Using the same principle, you can go to the menu bar and choose Title>Default Still, then work on your text, adding treatments to it. Place it over the image of your choice and you have the same thing.
For Ed, this is how I'd recommend creating your CC Titles. In the Titler, you can create various Shapes below your text to get what I think you are asking for.
For heavy Style application, one could create a Title as an Image in Photoshop. Choose the appropriate File>New preset for your Project's preset. You can bring in any other image as your "background," and then add the text with the Type Tool. There, you can do any number of Style modifications to the Type Layer. You can also add any number of Shapes and other graphic effects. Save your PSD (with all Layers intact), then Save_As and choose TIFF, unless you need transparency. For that, I'd probably go with PNG, but TGA should give you what you want. Import that into PE. You could also "punch holes" in the TIFF (not really using transparency), by doing something with the Track Matte Effect.
PE's Titler is nice, but lacks some power. P-Pro's is not that much different, or better. The "library" Titles, etc., are often good starting points, but one can do so very much more in Photoshop (even the PSE version), that I find it to be a better tool, when doing anything out of the ordinary.
There are also 3rd party Titlers, like Bluff Titler and ProDAD's Heroglyph Titler. These really come into their own when one is animating the Titles. For general purpose Titles, I always go to Photoshop. These can also have a little animation, just nothing quite like the 3rd party apps. Actually, PE's text-animation tools do more than P-Pro can do without a lot of manually placed Keyframes.
Hunt