Anyone know how I can get the effect of text typing itself on screen? I'm using Video Vegas 4, but also have the option to use after effects.

Thanks

Try looking for examples here:

http://www.creativecow.net/articles/vegas_veggies.html

Off the top of my head?

After Effects. Do a simple reveal first. Then go back and remove frames so it looks like each letter comes down one by one.

Sundance Media Group.com has all kinds of Veggies and scripts. I have the typewriter effect on disc, it took about 3 seconds to download. There lots of really good effects there.

It's done with the text generator and keyframes. Write the first letter, create a new keyframe at the point where he next letter should appear. Type the second letter etc. You may have to adjust some settings, like if you use centered text you'll find that all the letters ajusts sideways to accomodate each other as you type. (You can fool Vegas by typing spaces and gradually replacing them with characters - but it will be unprecise if your are using a propotionally spaced font.) Make sure the keyframes are behaving linearly - but I think that's the default anyway.
Experiment with sound. The effect may be greater if the sound is unrealistic.

It's quite time consuming to get the text to type from left to right. Vegas likes to think you want it starting from the middle and increasing in size from each side.

Not if you choose one of the "left" options on the second tab and have the text left aligned.

And it's not a method one would use to write a long story anyway.

Using the "center left" alignment isn't good when you want to do more than 1 line of text, as they overlap each other. So you then have to move the lines down or up, but you have to be very precise otherwise playback looks a little dodgy when the letters are typing. I've managed to do it now thanks.
Now, I just need some computer bleep sound effect that I can put over it to make it sound like its computer text typing on screen.

Go to http://www.wavcentral.com/
and do a search for "bleep".