The Settings Pane of the Customize Drawer

You can adjust many settings of your iDVD menu. If the slide-out Customize drawer shown below isn't visible, click the "Customize" button to open it, then click the "Settings" button at the top of the drawer.

Duration setting

The "Duration" slider, shown below, sets how long a motion menu plays before it returns to the beginning and repeats, a process called looping. The maximum loop duration allowed is 15 minutes (if your media is that long). Most DVD designers create motion loops that are much shorter than that, usually a maximum of 30 seconds in duration. Longer loops are unnecessary because most people will make a selection and leave the current menu before a 30-second loop starts repeating. If you hope to get a lot of content into your DVD project, be aware that longer loops take up a lot of storage space on the final DVD.

Background and audio settings

There are a couple of ways to customize a menu background. You can drag a photo or a movie into the "Background" well (shown to the right), or you can drag a photo or movie into the background area of the existing menu.

To mute a menu soundtrack, click the tiny speaker icon in the bottom-right corner of the Audio well.

When you drag a movie file or photo into the "Background" well, any drop zone that may have been included in the selected theme is removed. If you want to keep the drop zone as part of the menu design, Option-drag the movie you want to use as a menu background to the menu area, but not into the drop zone area. The drop zone remains and you can drag another movie into it. iDVD composites the two movies into one amazing menu.

Some themes include a soundtrack. To change a menu's soundtrack, drag an audio file into the "Audio" well (shown above-right).

In the example below we selected a wedding theme from "4.0 Themes" on the Themes pane. We Option-dragged a movie ("pool cleaner.mov") to the menu background to preserve the drop zone area. Then we dragged another movie ("bug.mov") to the drop zone (the area with a striped border). We changed the menu's default title ("Wedding Silver One") to "Costa Rica." Finally, we dragged three movies to the menu background to automatically create text buttons that link to the three movies ("Jungles," "Monkeys," and "Resorts"). The following page explains how to customize text buttons.

Title and Button settings

See page 194 for details about how to create buttons. Every theme includes placeholder text for a title.

To customize the title text, double-click the existing placeholder text to select it, then type a new title. To remove the title, choose "No Title" from the "Position" pop-up menu.

To change the title position, select the title, then choose an alignment option from the "Position" pop-up menu. To position a title anywhere, select the title, choose "Custom" from the "Position" pop-up menu, then drag the title anywhere in the menu.

Edit text buttons

To rename a button, single-click on the existing text, then type.

To change the size of text buttons, select a button, then drag the "Size" slider.

To change the alignment of text buttons, select a button. Click "Snap to Grid" in the "Button" section. Choose an option from the "Alignment" pop-up menu (Left, Center, or Right).

To delete a text button, select the button, then go to the Edit menu and choose "Delete."

Edit picture buttons

To change the position of picture buttons, click "Free Position" in the "Button" section, then drag the button to any position.

To change the position of picture button captions in relation to a button's picture, select a button, then from the "Position" pop-up menu select one of the options.

To remove picture button captions, choose "No Text" from the "Position" pop-up menu.

To change the size of picture buttons, select a button, then drag the "Size" slider in the "Button" section.

To apply a transition to a button, select the button in the menu, then choose a transition from the "Transition" pop-up menu. See the next page for more information about transitions.

To delete a picture button, select the button, then go to the Edit menu and choose "Delete" or hit the Delete key.

Text or picure buttons: To change a button font or color, select a button. Choose a typeface from the "Font" pop-up menu. Choose a font color from the "Color" pop-up menu.

Transition settings

When you watch a DVD and click a menu button, the visual on the screen usually jumps abruptly to a movie, a slideshow, or to another menu. The "Transition" pop-up menu lets you select a transition effect to soften the jump or make it more visually interesting. Transitions can also add a touch of professional sophistication to your project.

1.	Click on a menu item to select it.
2.	Select a transition style from the "Transition" pop-up menu. (The menu is dim until you add buttons that link to other content.)
3.	Choose a direction for the transition if it is directional, such as the "Cube" transition chosen below. Click one of the arrow quadrants on the direction control next to the pop-up menu.

You can apply a different transition to each button in a menu.

How to create buttons

To create a button that links to a movie or slideshow, drag a movie file or a folder of photos from the Media pane of the Customize drawer (or from any Finder window) to the iDVD menu.

When you drag movie files (or a folder of photos) to the menu, iDVD automatically creates text buttons that link to the corresponding file or folder. The button names are the same as the file or folder in which they were created. You can change button names after you've added them to the menu.

The options in the "Style pop-up button (shown above in the Customize drawer) let you customize existing buttons. Click on the pop-up menu to see a graphical menu of button choices.

• To convert picture buttons (buttons that display a movie or photo) to text buttons, choose the "T" option.

  Tip

  If you customize a menu by changing themes, or by changing the button style to something other than the default theme style, you may need to reposition or resize buttons in the menu to correct the alignment or to prevent buttons from overlapping.

  
  

  Or choose one of the other custom shapes in the pop-up to change text buttons to picture buttons or to change the appearance of a picture button.

• To show buttons as they were designed for the selected theme, choose the default, "From Theme."

• To customize the placement of buttons, select either "Snap to Grid" or "Free Position." When "Snap to Grid" is selected, choose an option from the "Alignment" or "Position" pop-up menu.

Save a customized menu as a favorite

When you've created a custom menu that you want to use again for other menus or for other iDVD projects, click "Save as Favorite" at the bottom of the Settings pane (circled below).

In the dialog sheet that drops down, name this menu design and select the options you want.

To make the favorite menu accessible to other users who have accounts on this computer, check the box "Shared for all users."

To make the favorite available to the current user only, do not check this box.

To replace an existing favorite, name the current favorite the same as the favorite you want to replace. Check the "Replace existing" box, then click OK.

To use a favorite, click the "Themes" button at the top of the Customize drawer, then from the pop-up menu in the Themes pane choose "Favorites." Your customized menu design now appears as a thumbnail image in the list, shown below. Click on a favorite in the Favorites list to apply its settings to the current menu. You can also see favorites, identified by a "first place ribbon" icon, when you select "All" from the pop-up menu.

Delete a favorite

If you decide to delete a favorite that you've created, you must go to the Favorites folder in which favorites are stored and manually throw it away.

1.	Quit iDVD.
2.	Find the Favorites folder where the favorite is located. If you selected "Shared for all users" in the "Save as Favorite" dialog sheet (shown on the previous page), the favorite is saved in a "Favorites" folder located deep within the Library folder on your startup disk. Look inside the Library folder for the iDVD folder. Next, locate the Favorites folder. The favorites you've saved are located there. The folder path looks like this: YourStartupDisk/Library/iDVD/Favorites. This is what a Favorite file looks like in the Favorites folder. If you did not select either of the checkboxes, or if you selected the "Replace existing" checkbox, the favorite is saved in a Favorites folder located deep within your Home folder. The folder path looks like this: YourHomeFolder/Library/iDVD/Favorites.
3.	Drag the favorite file from the Favorites folder to the Trash.

Customize a motion button

A motion button is a small window that contains either a movie or a slideshow, and it links to another movie, slideshow, or menu. You can set the duration of a motion button movie up to 15 minutes (if the movie or slideshow is that long), and you can also set the point at which the movie in the button starts playing.

To add motion buttons to a menu, drag movie files (or a folder of photos) from any Finder window to the menu. Or drag movies or photos from the Media pane of the Customize drawer. See the following pages for more information about the Media pane.

1.	Click on a motion button in a menu. If there's not a motion button in the menu, you can create one by dragging a movie file to a menu background.
2.	Click on a motion button. A "Movie" checkbox and slider appear above the button (shown below).
3.	Check the "Movie" checkbox if you want the button to contain motion (play a movie or slideshow). Move the slider left or right to scrub through the movie or slideshow to the point you want the motion to start playing.
4.	Uncheck the box if you want the button to contain a static image. If you uncheck the "Movie" checkbox, use the slider position to set the poster framethe static image that shows in the picture button to represent the movie or slideshow.

To change text buttons into motion buttons, select a picture button style from the "Style" pop-up menu located in the Settings pane of the Customize drawer.

You cannot have motion buttons and text buttons in the same menu.

When you use the "Duration" slider in the Settings pane to set the duration of a button, it also affects the duration of the background movie and background audio. The maximum oop duration shown on the slider is determined by the longest media clip used in the current menu.