Section 17.3. Editing and Positioning Text


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. You can fill them with whatever explanatory text you think is appropriate: instructions, 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 Buttons and Menu panes to specify the font, color , alignment, and size of the text.

It's a lot easier to edit text in iDVD 6 than in early versions, but a lot less consistent. For example, you must now switch back and forth between the Menu and Buttons panes, instead of finding all text editing on a single screen. On the up side, iDVD 6 offers many new and powerful options, including better control over typefaces , colors, font sizes, and font weights (thicknesses).

Here 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).
  • Select the text box . Click it once. 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 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, size or weight . Choose new typefaces from the Menu pane ( for text fields and menu titles) and the Buttons pane ( for buttons). You're not allowed to mix and match fonts within a text box, but each text item (each button label, title, and text box) can have a different font family, size and weight (like regular, bold, or italic). Pretty spiffy, and new to iDVD 6.

  • Change the text color . Choose a new color on the Menu or Buttons pane. Titles, buttons, and text boxes can each use different colors.

  • Add (or remove) a drop shadow . Use the Shadow checkbox to add a faint shadow behind and below the text that creates an easier-to-read, almost 3-D effect.

  • Align text . To change the alignment of text within a text box or button, select the text and then choose an alignment from the Buttons or Menu pane: left, center, or right.

  • 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 in the Buttons pane, choose a button-label position relative to the button graphic: Right Side, Left Side, Above, Below, or Center.

  • 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.

  • Reset defaults . To restore a selected button's original appearance, first click From Theme in the Buttons pane and then click Reset Label. To restore a selected title, click Reset Text in the Menu pane.

  • 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 [Section 15.3.2] 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.)


Tip: Don't confuse Button text color with the Highlight color. Highlights surround your buttons when your viewers select them with their remote control. Text color simply refers to the color used by iDVD to add text to your menu screens.



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

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