Hm, I don't know exactly what you mean by more vivid...
To make an outline,I have about three steps. So hopefully not too complicated. Right click on the text layer and go to Alpha to Selection (I believe that's the right one). Your text should be selected then. Make a new layer. Then go to Select>Grow>1. Fill the selection with the opposite color and either set it on overlay (for a lighter border) or move it below the text layer so you get a full outline. And you can play around with how much you "grow" it. For example, this one was 3 (I think):
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m69/ ... s/clue.jpg
Elessar: for a glow, I usually duplicate the text twice, blur each, and set the lower on screen, the top on overlay.