Overlay inputed text on gif - can't do more than one word

[anthony]

Note Annotate and draw can only align text to a integer position. Though it should be able to align to a sub-pixel position, I have not gotten it to do so, NOR have I reported this as a possible bug.

1(a) should work fine. What do you means inverted commas? could you again be have unicode characters present?

1(b) is what was expected. BUT you should also get an which you do not report.
convert: unable to open image `john': No such file or directory @ blob.c/OpenBlob/2489.

2) It is only one dash for layers, and can NOT be a unicode dash. I sometimes get a unicode dash when I copy and paste from an email.

OR your IM could be too old. -layers are newish operators that were added to version 6.2.6-2
The OptimizeTransparency was added into version 6.3.4

You can use convert -list layer to see if a particular layer method was implemented in the installed version of IM.