Select and edit text in text layers

You can edit text in text layers at any time. If you set the text to follow a path, designate it as a 3D layer, transform it, or animate it, you can still continue to edit it. Before you can edit text, you must select it.

To select all text in a text layer and activate the most recently used type tool, double-click the text layer in the Timeline panel.

The pointer for a type tool changes, depending on whether it is over a text layer in the Composition panel. When the pointer for a type tool is directly over a text layer, it appears as the edit text pointer ; click to place the insertion point in the existing text.

To select text with a type tool, do one of the following:

To select a range of text, drag over the text.
To select a range of text, click, move the pointer, and then Shift-click.
To select a word, double-click it. To select a line, triple-click it. To select a paragraph, quadruple-click it. To select all text in a layer, quintuple-click anywhere in the text.
To use the arrow keys to select text, hold down Shift and press the Right Arrow or Left Arrow key. To use the arrow keys to select words, hold down Shift+Ctrl (Windows) or Shift+Command (Mac OS) and press the Right Arrow or Left Arrow key.

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his website for editing the source text of text layers: www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_jeffedittext.

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his website that converts various plain text punctuation into their “smart” typographical representations (for example, (c) is converted to the copyright symbol, ©): www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_jeffgetsmart.

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his website that sets keyframes for the Source Text property of a text layer and sets the values to text from a text file; the keyframes are placed at times specified by layer markers on the text layer: www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_jeffmaptextfiletomarkers.