These tutorials show many effects that you can do with text, including animated ones. Most of the tuts are very simple and are easy to follow.
Requirements:
Paint Shop Pro 7 or another editing program
Animation Shop 3 or another animation program
General Knowledge of the tools
THESE TUTORIALS CAN BE EASILY TRANSLATED TO OTHER VERSIONS/PROGRAMS.
Please have a general knowledge of the tools I am talking about, because I will not be screen capping themn so you know where they are.
NON-ANIMATED TEXT EFFECTS
Lesson 1:
Outlining Text.
Create floating text. Anti-alias is checked. The image that you're creating the text on will be the color that the outline will be. So, in this case, the image is black.
Go to Selections > Modify > Expand
Expand 1 pixel. It will look like this:
Now Edit > Copy, and then Edit > Paste onto the icon. I usually paste the text as a new layer. Therefore, it is easy to work with.
Lesson 2:
Outlining Text: Thick Borders
You can create thick borders around your font the same way you would in Lesson 1.
Go to Selections > Modify > Expand
Expand 2-3 pixels. (You can go larger, depending on the effect that you want.)
I used a slightly larger font for this example. It should look something like this:
Lesson 3:
Semi-Transparent Text.
Once you have completed Lesson 1, you can now make your text look Semi-transparent. Semi-transparent text usually looks better when you have a border around it (preferably black). This way the text is more visible.You can also add a drop shadow effect. You will be learning how in the next lesson.
If you have your outlined text pasted as a new LAYER, you can move on.
There are several ways to do this. They each create a slightly different effect, so I will post them here.
One is way is to reduce the opacity to 25-50%. 
Another way is to set the Blend Mode to Overlay. Opacity is set at 100%.
Or you can set the blend mode to Soft Light. Opacity is set at 100%.
Lesson 3:
Glowing Text.
Create new floating, anti-alias text.
Go to Effects > 3-D Effects > Drop Shadow. Have your settings as shown:
You may have to repeat this step a few times. (Edit > Repeat Drop Shadow.)
And you get this:
Lesson 4:
Gradients and Text
This tutorial tells you how to make text that is multi-colored. It is a VERY simple procedure.
When you open your text entry box, you see the Stroke and Fill boxes.
Disable Stroke.
Click on the arrow by the "Fill" box and choose the second option; gradient. 
Once you're that far, you can choose which colors you want your text to be.
Here's my finished product after I added the Drop Shadow.
ANIMATED TEXT EFFECTS
Lesson 1:
We will be learning to make text that looks like this.
First, you need to make your base. I will be using this for an example.
Open your base into your animation program. Once you're that far, duplicate your animation by going to Animation > Duplicate selected.
Set the Paintbrush tool at 1 pixel. Zoom in on your dupliated bases. I zoomed in 4 times.
Choose the color that you want your font to "blink" to. I chose red. (#FF0000)
You will have to fill in the letters manually. So, once you have "painted" one letter, duplicate that frame.
Once you have done this to all of the letters, you will get something that looks like this.
Lesson 1: Part 2
If you don't want your text like that, you can try this.
Count how many letters are in your base. Duplicate the frames so that you have one more than that number. In this case, my animation will have 9 frames.
Then, go to the second frame and paint the first letter. Go to the third frame and paint the second letter. And so forth. This will create a sort of "highlight" effect.
Lesson 1: Part 3
You can also do this effect with several letters at a time. We will be creating an effect that looks like this:
I will be animation three letters at a time. The three colors that I will be using are light pink, (#FF91C5), fuschia, (#F60074), & red (#FF0000). You need to remember that colors that you will be using, or it may get confusing.
First of all, duplicate your base several times. I painted the first letter red. On the next frame, I painted the second letter red and the first letter fuschia. Next frame, first letter light pink, second letter fuschia, third letter red.
Now, in the third frame, the three colors are on the first three letters.
You will be painting the second frame red, the third frame fuschia, and the fourth frame light pink.
Can you see the pattern?
Do that until the only the last letter of your word/s is painted.
It will look like this.
Lesson 2:
Placing animated text onto an icon.
Create a new image with your text on it. Make sure that your image is a color that your text does not include. You may want to paste the text as a layer. (Edit > Cut. Edit > Paste as New Layer.) 
Next, go to File > Export > GIF Optimizer. Your settings should look like this.
Have "Areas that match this color" selected, and put the color of your background there. I used lime green. Click OK.
Now, you can automatically save your text, but it won't have a background.
Open your icon base and the text with the transparent background into your animation program. You can now add effects to your text. (See lesson 3.)
Once you have added an effect to your text, duplicate your icon so that the animated text and the icon have the same amount of frames. Copy and paste your text into the icon, and viola! You have animated text.
Lesson 2: Part 2
There is one other way that you can make text transparent. Instead of pasting your text as a new layer, you leave it as a "Floating Selection."
Go to File > Export > GIF Optimizer. Now, instead of Selecting "Area that match this color," you will choose "Outside of the Current Selection."
Click OK to save it!
Lesson 3
Creating Text Effects
If you have completed Lesson 2, you may move on.
Open your text (with the transparent background) and your icon in your animation program.
Right click on the transparent text and go to "Insert Image Effect."
Choose an effect and length that you are happy with, and click OK.
Once you have added an effect to your text, duplicate your icon so that the animated text and the icon have the same amount of frames. Copy and paste your text into the icon, and viola! You have animated text.
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icon_tutorial & psptutorials