iDVD 5: Meet the new menu elements - intros and dynamic drop zones

iDVD 5 has some new menu themes that feature brand new elements—intros and dynamic drop zones—to enhance your DVD menu presentations. Here's a closer look at these components, as well as a new button enhancement, and how to use them.

Intros
Some motion menu themes feature an intro, which plays before the menu's looping portion begins. For example, the intro of the Travel Cards theme shows the cards as they swing up onto the screen and then the loop begins when they move to the left. When the menu finishes playing, it loops back to the point right after the intro (you see the intro only once at the very beginning).

To help you distinguish the intro from the looping part of a motion menu, iDVD 5 features a scrubber bar (with playhead) that appears at the bottom of the menu to serve as a visual indicator and navigational control (from the Advanced menu, choose Show Motion Playhead if you do not see the scrubber bar). The intro part appears as a shaded segment to the left of the looping part.

You can quickly move to any part of your motion menu by dragging the playhead back and forth in the scrubber bar. If you prefer not to have an intro play in a menu theme that includes one, deselect the checkbox that appears to the left of the scrubber bar.

Dynamic Drop Zones
Drop zones are menu design elements that allow you to customize the look of a theme. You can display movies, still images, or slideshows that are related to your specific project within them. Some themes contain new dynamic drop zones, which move around the menu or change in size through time. Keep in mind that drop zones are not interactive like buttons (see below). In other words, a viewer cannot select a drop zone to play a movie or go to another menu.

To add an image, movie, or slideshow to a dynamic drop zone, do one of the following:

• From the Project menu, choose Edit Drop Zones
• Double-click any drop zone

A window opens, showing a numbered list of all drop zones in the menu. You can drag items from the Finder or iDVD's Media browser to the drop zones to add content. You can also delete and change the content of any drop zone, but you can't reorder them. For more information on drop zones, see iDVD Help (from the Help menu, choose iDVD Help).

Buttons
Buttons are the items that a viewer selects to play a movie, display a slideshow, or navigate to another menu. They can display text, still images, or a movie. To create a button that links to a movie, drag a movie into the menu in an area that is not labeled a drop zone. To create a button for a slideshow or submenu, click the Slideshow or Folder button in the iDVD window, or from the Project menu, choose Add Folder or Add Slideshow.

A new enhancement to buttons is the ability to add customized transitions to any button before the movie, slideshow, or next menu appears.

Tip: If you want all buttons in a particular menu to have the same transition, you can either select all the buttons in the menu at once and select a transition, or in map view, select the menu and then select a transition.

Please note that you cannot add buttons to the intro section of the menu.