HomePage 4 of 5: Menu Creation
Step 4: Menu Creation
Now we proceed to make a menu for our DVD compilation. PowerProducer comes with several different templates for menus, some of which can be customized. To select a template, select the "Menu" option under the "Edit" section.
Click on the "Template" button, and from the drop down menu, select a theme for your menu (eg. Sports).
Press the "+" button to add your own custom background image for the current theme. You can also click on the "Apply to all menus" button to apply this template to all the menus on your compilation. If you want to create your own menu template from scratch instead of using an existing one, the best way is to select an existing template that sort of looks like what you want to make, add a custom background using the "+" button, and then configure the template options (button per page, layout, frame ... see below, these options are not enabled if you do not add your own custom background) to your taste.
Click on the "Return" button to return to the template options page.
Click on "Buttons per page" to indicate how many buttons/thumbnails you want per page - this applies to the chapter menu as well. There are also "Frame", "Button Layout" and "Button Style" options, althought not for these options to become available for selection, you will need to use a custom background image (added using the "+" button described above).
Once you have selected your menu template and the template options, you can also add a background music to the menu, and add a "first play video" (a video which plays before the menu shows up). Remember that for background music, it will only play for a certain length before either stopping or restart from the beginning - the length setting was set earlier in the preferences section (see Step 2). You can click on the "Remove background music" button to remove the music, but I find that you will also have to make some other changes to the menu, as otherwise the music is not properly removed (the template is not saved). When making the menu, especially motion menus, keep an eye on the size bar down at the bottom to make sure you compilation isn't too big - a 60 second motion menu can take quite a lot of space, especially if it has animation/motion thumbnails.
You can also choose to save your template for future usage, or load one you have made before.
When you have finished making the menu, press the green tick button to save the changes and return to the Content screen.
Here, you can edit text elements of the menu by double clicking on the text to change it.
