16.3. Adding MoviesWhen you get right down to it, all iDVD really does is add window dressingmenus, buttons , and so onto movies, music, and photos created in other programs. Take movies, for example. You already know that you can transfer an iMovie project into iDVD by clicking iMovie's Make iDVD Project button (that's what Chapter 15's all about). But that's just the beginning of the ways you can add movies to your iDVD projects. You can also:
The following pages take you through these additional methods .. 16.3.1. The Import CommandiDVD's File Import command lets you install video, audio, pictures, and background movies into your project; see Figure 16-2. 16.3.2. The FinderAnother great way to install a movie into an iDVD menu screen is to drag it there, either right off the desktop or from an open folder window. Figure 16-3 tells all.
16.3.3. The Movies Media PaneDragging files in from the Finder is great, but it assumes that you know where your movies are. Fortunately, if you're a little fuzzy on where you've stored all your movie files, iDVD can help. Open the Customize drawer (click the Customize button at the bottom of the screen if it isn't already open). Then click the Media button at the top of the drawer and, from the pop up menu, choose Movies (see Figure 16-4). The Movies pane opens, showing a list of folders at the top of the pane. At the outset, this list contains only one folder, the Movies folder (which is actually in your Home folder). Click its name to see every digital movie and iMovie project that iDVD can find in that folder (although not in folders in that folder.) See the box on the next page for some tips on navigating it. (If you have movies somewhere else on your hard drive, see "Listing more movies," below).
16.3.3.1 Listing more movie foldersiDVD starts out displaying only the contents of your Home Movies folder. This arrangement spares you from looking at a list of the 50,000 individual clips that make up all of your various iMovie projects. The bad news is that it doesnt show you any other folders you have that might contain movies.
Fortunately, you can teach iDVD to list the contents of additional movie folders. To do so, drag new folders from the Finder to the list in the Movies pane, or choose iDVD Preferences ( -comma), click the Movies button, and follow the steps in Figure 16-5. Repeat for as many folders as you want to add. 16.3.4. Clips and Movies from iMovieIf you click the Create iDVD Project button in iMovie, as described in the previous chapter, iMovie creates a brand-new iDVD project. iMovie offers no obvious way to install a second or third movie into an existing iDVD project. That's a shame, because most homemade DVDs are not, in fact, 90-minute opuses, complete with character development and a satisfying narrative arc. (In fact, an hour and a half of anybody's home movies is about 80 minutes too long.) Most of the time, people want to fill a DVD with several of their finished iMovie projects. They want each button on the DVD's main menu to represent a complete movie.
Fortunately, it's easy enough to create this effect. In iLife '05, you can drag either an iMovie clip or an entire iMovie project into iDVDif you know what to drag. Figure 16-6 shows all. Note: The drag-the-title-bar-icon trick illustrated in Figure 16-6 works only for iMovie projects that have been saved in the new, single-icon iMovie HD project format (page 112). If your project is still represented on your hard drive as a project folder, you can't drag its title-bar icon. Whichever way you pick, whatever you just dragged turns into a new button on the menu page. 16.3.5. Movies with ChaptersYou already know from the previous chapter that if you export a movie directly from iMovie, any chapter markers you've added automatically turn into buttons in iDVD. But what happens if you drag an iMovie movie, itself containing chapter markers, into iDVD as described above? Unless you've changed the iMovie settings, iDVD automatically turns those chapter markers into buttons, just as though you'd exported the movie from iMovie. They wind up on a menu screen of their owna submenu. Unfortunately, you've now created a fairly complex menu structure. To jump to a certain scene in your dragged-in iMovie, your audience has to navigate through three different pages of buttons. For that reason, you might not always want iMovie to turn your chapter markers into buttonsat least not without asking your permission. Choose iDVD Preferences. On the General tab, you have three choices under "When importing movies:
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