Menu

Once you've decided on a menu, iDVD gives you several quick ways to personalize it.

Drop Zones
Music
Inspector Window
Preview

Drop Zones

A Drop Zone is an area into which you can drag and drop an image, a movie, or a slideshow. Drop Zones are purely aesthetic, but they're darn fun to play with.

To add media to a Drop Zone, click on the Media button underneath the right panel to access the Media Browser. Browse to the media you want to add, click on the icon, then drag and drop. You'll know when you're toggling over the Drop Zone, because a yellow and black border will appear around the area.

To delete media from a Drop Zone, click on the Zone, and move the mouse slightly off the area. A little puff of air will appear to indicate that you've deleted the media from the Zone. Deleting media from a Drop Zone does not delete it from your computer.

To ensure that you've completely filled in every Drop Zone in the menu, a new feature of iDVD '08 is the Drop Zone Editor. To see this handy tool, click on the DROP ZONE EDITOR icon (fifth from the left), which looks like a dotted-line square with an arrow going into it. From this, you'll see a thumbnail of the menu theme as well as thumbnails of the Drop Zones.

Music

Several of the menus have audio built in. You can keep it or you can change it. If you choose a menu that doesn't have a soundtrack but want to add one, you can do that, too. Changing and adding audio to a menu is the same process:

1. Upload your track (or playlist) into iTunes.
2. Select the Media button below the right panel and click on Audio at the top of the panel. Browse to the track or playlist.
3. Click on the icon beside the track (or playlist) and drag it from the menu into a blank space or onto the Menu box in the Drop Zone Editor.

If you do not want music to play in your menu, you can display the Drop Zone Editor and click on the little volume icon on the Menu box (it's a little tricky to see) or you can use the Inspector Window.

Inspector Window

iDVD '08 has rolled out another nice feature: the Inspector Window. Click on the "i" icon (second from the left), and the Inspector Window will open.

From this window, you can:

• Set the time duration of the motion loop
• Drag and drop audio directly into the audio box
• Set the volume of the menu soundtrack
• Specify the layout and outline color of buttons (more on this later)
• Decide whether or not Drop Zones will appear in the preview function

You can drag this menu outside of the iDVD interface, a nice feature when you're in the midst of working on your menu.

Preview

To preview your DVD at any time, click on the PREVIEW icon (it looks like a play button) to the right of the volume slider. The iDVD interface will be replaced with the iDVD Preview window and a virtual DVD controller. Use the controller to navigate through your DVD. When you are done, click exit on the top right of the DVD controller.

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