17.3. Editing and Positioning Text Although most people focus primarily on iDVD's drop zones, video buttons , and so on, text also plays a critical role. It's a dependable, instantly recognizable part of a DVD menu system. The text that you can fiddle with falls into three categories: -
Menu titles help viewers figure out where they are in the DVD menu system by providing clues to the current context: "Our Vacation," "Pictures (Week 1)," and "Scene Selection Menu," for example. Title text usually appears at the top of the screen, although you can put it anywhere you like. -
Button text can appear all by itself, or as labels above, below, beside, or on top of graphic buttons. -
Text boxes can appear anywhere on your screen. Thanks to this feature, you can create text boxes on your menu screens and fill them with whatever explanatory text you think is appropriateinstructions, introductions , a description of the project, and so on.
Tip: In iDVD, as in life, don't be too talky. Brevity is the soul of DVD captions.
To add a text block, choose Project  Add Text ( -K). Double-click the placeholder text and type away. Use the Settings panel of the Customize drawer to specify the font, color , alignment, and size of the text. It's a lot easier to edit text in iDVD 5 than in early versions, and a lot more consistent. Just select the text you want to modify and use the Text adjustments in the Settings pane. Here, for example, is a boatload of techniques to help customize your text. Each method changes the selected text on only the currently displayed DVD menu screen.
Tip: Style changes (font, size, color) affect a title, text box, or the buttons on a screen, whichever is currently selected. That is, changes you make to one button apply to all buttons as a group (on the current menu screen).
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Select the text box. Click once on it. A brightly colored border appears. Now you can drag the box to move it, press Delete to remove it, Shift-click another text box to highlight both at once, use the Copy command so that you can paste them onto another menu screen, and so on. -
Change the text. To highlight a piece of text, double-click anywhere inside it. (If the text is the title of a picture or video button, you must first click the button and then single-click the associated text.) You'll note that iDVD automatically highlights the entire phrase, meaning that you can just begin to type, replacing the entire text blob, without first dragging across it. (Of course, if you want to edit only part of the existing text, drag with the mouse first.) Press Return or Enter when you're finished. -
Choose a font. To select a new typeface, choose from the Text Font menu on the Settings pane. Youre not allowed to mix and match fonts within a text box, but each kind of text (button labels, title, and text boxes) can have a different font. -
Change the text color. In the Settings pane, choose a new color from the Text Color pop-up menu). iDVD offers 18 colors and shades to choose from. Titles, buttons, and text boxes can each use different colors. -
Add (or remove) a drop shadow. Use the Drop Shadow checkbox to add a drop shadowa faint shadow behind and below the text that creates an easier-to-read, almost 3-D effect. -
Change the font size. Adjust the Text Size slider in the Settings pane to choose a new font size for your selected text. As with fonts, you can pick only one font size per text category. -
Remove the title. Highlight the text on the menu and then press the Delete key. The empty title text box remains, but it's invisible. Later, if you like, you can click inside the title box to reopen it and type new text. -
Remove button text. To remove the labels from your buttons, select any button and then choose No Text from the Text Position pop-up menu (in the Settings pane). Youve just removed labels from all the buttons, not just the selected one. -
Reposition (icon) button text. iDVD lets you place button text on any side of the button, or even directly in its center. Select a button and then locate the Text Position pop-up menu in the Settings pane. Choose a button-label position relative to the button graphic: Top, Center, Bottom, Left, and Right. -
Align text. To change the alignment of text (titles, text boxes, or text buttons), select the text and then use the Text Alignment pop-up menu. Choose from Left, Centered, and Right. -
Position the title or text box. You can drag titles and text boxes anywhere on the screen you like. (Be careful not to park one where the overscanning effect of older TVs [page 186] might chop off some of your letters . To avoid this problem, choose Advanced Show TV Safe Area before you drag, taking care to keep the text inside the superimposed guideline rectangle that iDVD now puts onscreen.)  |
