Premiere Titler - a Powerful Tool

Question

The Titler in Premiere is basically a sub-application, within Premiere. It is a little bit word processor, has some of the attributes of Photoshop and Illustrator, with a tiny bit of InDesign, built in, and is very useful. It’s a very powerful tool, and is handy for adding Text, usually, but also Shapes and Lines to a Video.
Premiere comes with several templates for Titles, and though pre-made, can be altered in an almost limitless fashion, with the Tools in Titler.
Starting back a bit, Titles, created with Titler are not really images, though they have some attributes of a Still Image. For instance, their Duration can be set globally in Edit>Preferences>General>Still Duration, but can also be adjusted, by click+dragging on the Head, or the Tail of the Title, just like with a Still Image. Also, they are really synthetic video, so when added to the Premiere Timeline, will have a red line above them, indicating that they need to be Rendered (hitting the Enter/Return key) for smoothest playback. If they are placed over a Still Image, or Video, the same red line will appear, because they are basically an overlay, and their pixels will have to be blended with the pixels from the Asset underlying the Title. If the Title is the only Asset on the Timeline, at that point, then playback is probably not an issue, unless one animates the Title, with either Keyframing, or by applying an animation Preset. Then, to see that animation in the smoothest manner, Rendering might well be needed. For more information on Rendering, see this article: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3484339#3484339
When one creates a Title with Titler, they do not exist as physical Assets, like a Video Clip, or Still Image. Instead, they are just XML code in the Premiere Project file (PREL for PrE, or PRPROJ for PrPro). That means that they are forever editable, unlike a Title created as a Still Image, in say Photoshop, and Imported into Premiere.
When a Title is created, it appears in Premiere’s Project Panel. It can be used many times, as an Instance of that Title is what is placed onto the Timeline. That means, however, that if one uses multiple Instances of a Title, any change made to any of those, or the Title in the Project Panel, will be made to ALL Instances.
Often, one will create a Title, and then wish to create others, based on that first Title. The method is to create a New Title, but base it on an existing Title. The exact steps differ between Premiere versions. In Premiere Elements, one would go to that Title in the Project Panel, Rt-click on it, and choose Duplicate. This will do just that - duplicate the Title, but instead of being an Instance of it, it will be a separate, unique Title. It can then be edited, as is needed. Titler will require that this Duplicate be named. In Premiere Pro, there is an icon in Titler, New Title Based on Current, that does the same thing, and the user will be required to name that new Title. Again, it can be edited, as necessary.
In Titler, everything that one sees is an Object, whether it is a Type Object, or a Shape Object (which can be a Line, as well). The Objects can be Selected (the Selection Tool is the “arrow” in the Titler Toolbar), Deleted, Moved, Copied and Pasted, or adjusted, say altering a Stroke, or a Fill, and with Text, the font, color and Styles.
One can also add Clip Art, or Images, into a Title. Those will be Objects too, and can be moved about, or deleted, as is required.
With a Type Object, one can also Select Text with the Type Tool. That can be used to Select and alter one character, or entire lines of text, by click+dragging.
As text can be either Point Type, or Paragraph Type. On the surface, they look the same, but behave in a slightly different manner. They are also created differently. With Point Type, one selects the Type Tool, clicks in the Title, and begins typing. To wrap Point Type, one needs to add a line break. With Paragraph Type, one selects the Type Tool, then click+drags in the Title, to create a Type Block. As they type in the text, or perhaps Paste it from a word processing document, the Type will Wrap, at the boundaries of the Type Block.
Now, various versions of Premiere offer some animation Presets, for Titles. However, those can be limiting, such as being limited to only one line of Text in PrE. One can create the same animations, but with much more control, if they Keyframe the Fixed Effect>Motion>Position (one can create Rolls and Crawls with this one Fixed Effect), and maybe others, depending on what one wants. Many, if not most, of the added Effects can also be added to Titles, and can also be Keyframed, to change things, over time.
One can also create Titles in Photoshop, and Import those into Premiere. In PrPro, there is an extra benefit from this, in that the Photoshop PSD can be created and then Imported, with the full Layer structure. In PrPro, this Import would be “As a Sequence,” where each individual Layer is Imported as a Clip (each can be animated separately), in a new Sequence.
The Premiere Titler is a very useful and versatile tool, and one’s use of it, plus Keyframed Effects, will only be limited by one’s imagination.

Answer 1

There are several tutorials on Adobe TV, regarding Titles. While they were created in Premiere Pro, most of the material applies to Premiere Elements too:
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-digital-school-collection/adding-titles/
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-premiere-pro-cs6/creating-and-editing-titles/
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-beginner-classes-with-dennis-radeke/episode-40premiere-pro -basics-using-photoshop-for-titles/
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/moving-to-adobe-premiere-pro-/title-tool-/
PrElements Titler Help File: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WS020935FC-7A12-48f2-8884-F8DC2D7E6985. html