Opening

When you first open iDVD '08, you'll see a menu which gives you four options:

• Choose a New Project: Select this if you're importing a completed movie.
• Open an Existing Project: Choose this if you will be working on an iDVD project that you previously created.
• Magic iDVD: This feature allows you to create a DVD on the fly by essentially dragging and dropping slideshows, movies, and music. In this type of project, you'll also set the theme to the DVD menus.
• OneStep DVD: Select this if you have footage on a camcorder that you want to quickly burn to a DVD without editing it in iMovie. This option creates an autoplay DVD (plays as soon as you put it in a DVD player), which also means you cannot choose a menu theme.

For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll assume that you're starting a new project from scratch by choosing the first option.

The next window that pops up prompts you to:

• Save as: Choose a file name. This won't appear on the DVD itself, so name it something that you can find again as necessary.
• Where: Choose where to save the file. This defaults to the Documents folder, but by clicking on the up-down arrows on the right, you can browse to other folders.
• Aspect Ratio: The dimensions of the movie. Choose the format that matches how your film was shot, or, in some cases, the aspect ratio you decided on when creating a movie in iMovie. As a refresher:
• Standard (4:3): Formatted for normal TVs. Letter-boxes to the right and left when played on widescreen sets.
• Widescreen (16:9) Formatted for widescreen TVs. Letter-boxes above and below when played on standard sets.

Unlike in iMovie '08, iDVD '08 does not automatically save your project; so make sure to save periodically.

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