Okay i got a question..lets just say that there is a video clip of soome one on a bike. How to I make his name pop up on the screen so that you can see his name and the clip at the same time, then have the text disolve but the video clip still going. I kinda need step by step instuctions here..I dont know many of the "computer terms" any help would be greatly appreciated..thanks alot

assuming you already have the bike clip on the time line...

insert video track
click and drag the new track to the top (above the bike track)
in the media generators choose text
drag and drop the transparent background text onto the timeline in your new video track
edit the text as you please
move the text to the appropriate point on the timeline
to fade out, move the curser to the top right corner of the text event on the time line
the curser should change to a right angle with a circle type looking thing
drag that to the left
the text should fade out - adjust as required

whenever I hit the transparent text..and drop it on the timeline..it comes out purple. I put it in the middle of the clip..then when it gets to the text..it turn purple for the amount of time that it is there then goes back to the normal clip???im lost lol

go into the text edit window
under the properies tab you'll see text colour and background colour
for the background, grab the slider and move to the bottom, that will make the background transparent

look up text in the help menu, it's a fairly simple thing to do