Section 17.6. Saving Favorites


17.6. Saving Favorites

After applying all the techniques described so far in this chapter, you may end up creating masterpieces of adapted iDVD themes. Fortunately, iDVD allows you to save and reuse these modified themes after you adjust them to your liking. Here's how to go about it:

  1. Choose File Save Theme as Favorite .

    The Save sheet (dialog box) appears at the top of the window. (iDVD 6 doesn't have the Save as Favorite button you may remember from earlier versions.)

  2. Type the name for your new theme. Turn on "Shared for all users," if you like .

    If you're the only person who uses your Mac, never mind. But if you share a Mac with other students, workers, or family members , each of whom has a Mac OS X account , the "Shared for all users"option makes your new theme available to other people who use the machine. (Otherwise, your masterpiece will appear in the list only when you use iDVD.)

    When you save a Favorite, you no longer need to keep the original theme on which it was based, as far as iDVD is concerned . Feel free to discard, rename, or move the original theme files from their original locations on your hard drive.

    (The box below offers the details.)

  3. Turn off "Replace existing" if you want to create a new entry in the theme list .

    If you turn on "Replace existing," iDVD will treat your adapted theme as a replacement for the one you based it on, rather than creating a new entry in the list.

  4. Click OK .

    power users' clinic
    Secrets of the Theme Files

    Whenever you save a new Favorite theme, iDVD does a fair amount of administrative work. Behind the scenes, it creates a new theme file on your hard drive. If you decided to share your theme with other account holders, this file appears in the Library iDVD Favorites folder. If not, it winds up in your Home Library iDVD Favorites folder. Unlike regular themes, whose names end with the suffix .theme, Favorites use a .favorite file name extension. (See Figure 17-6 at bottom.)

    Why is this important to know? Because it tells you how to remove a saved Favorite: Just drag the .favorite file out of the secret folder and into the Trash. The next time you open iDVD, that favorite will no longer appear in the Themes pane pop-up menu.

    It's also worth noting that when you create a favorite, iDVD copies all relevant materials, including background audio and video, to the newly created theme. (Don't believe it? To view these materials, navigate to the saved .favorite file. Control-click or right-click its icon; from the shortcut menu, choose Show Package Contents. Then open the Contents Resources folder.)


    iDVD saves your theme as a new Favorite (Figure 17-6). You'll be able to apply it to other DVDs in the future by choosing its name from the Themes pane. (Choose Favorites from the pop-up menu to see its listing.)

Figure 17-6. In general, you'll call up your stored Favorite themes by choosing Favorites from the pop-up menu of the Themes pane (top).
Behind the scenes, your Favorites are actual icons hidden on your hard drive (bottom). That's good to know in case someday you want to throw one away.




iMovie 6 & iDVD
iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual
ISBN: B003R4ZK42
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 203
Authors: David Pogue

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net