Hi
Text fade in should work by clicking the f at the start of the clip and then entering the desired duration of the effect. (There is also Fade-in effect to be found by clicking the FX box at the start of the clip) Whichever method is used the fade-in should be indicated by the presence of the the Blue bar above the start of the text clip on the timeline....

Are you seeing this? Is there a blue bar? Obviously the fade must not be longer than the duration of the actual text clip. Is the problem with the exported file?
Everything works OK here with VP 10.02 (32 bit)
What are your save parameters and what version of VP are you using?
Nat