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. Open the Settings pane in the Customize drawer .

    Click Customize first to open the drawer, if necessary.

  2. Click Save as Favorite (at the bottom of the pane).

    The Save sheet (dialog box) appears at the top of the window.

  3. 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, then 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.)

    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, iDVD 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 17-4 at right.)

    Why is this important to know? Because it tells you how to remove a saved favorite: Just drag the .favorite .le 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 its icon; from the contextual menu, choose Show Package Contents Then open the Contents Resources folder.)

    Because iDVD has made copies of your movies, pictures, and soundtrack files, you no longer need to keep the originals , as far as iDVD is concerned . Feel free to discard, rename, or move these components from their original locations on your hard drive.


  4. 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.

  5. Click OK.

    iDVD saves your theme as a new Favorite. 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.)


Tip: It could happen: You could tire of a saved Favorite. See the box on page 427 for the secret instructions on removing one from your iDVD theme list.

Figure 17-4. In general, you'll call up your stored Favorite themes by choosing Favorites from the pop-up menu of the Themes pane (left). Behind the scenes, your Favorites are actual icons hidden on your hard drive (right). That's good to know in case someday you want to throw one away.




iMovie HD & iDVD 5. The Missing Manual
iMovie HD & iDVD 5: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596100337
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 209
Authors: David Pogue

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