How to make a menu with just one screen?

rbowser

Contributor Joined: Aug 08, 2011 16:48 Messages: 515 Offline

Solved by

Aug 23, 2011 23:58

I'm not finding any menu templates either in the program or online which I really care for. My taste is for menus that are straight-forward- just an image and some links, and then extra pages for chapters if they're called for.

But my present project has just 3 chapters. They could easily enough all be on that first home page, and that's where I'd like them. I tried the option of making a menu from scratch, but even that's a template - there's a home page and extra pages. I couldn't see where I could say "Thanks, I don't want chapter pages."

Also--I see the option toward the bottom to say how many chapters are on a page, if you're using them, but it's always greyed out. In the from-scratch template, the only option I could suss out was to have ONE chapter per page-- So that's what I'm doing with this project - I have the splash home page, then three more pages with just one chapter per page, and it's not at all what I wanted.

In the make-a-new-menu window, it says "item 1" through "item 3"--I was hoping those items could be this video's 3 chapters. But then when I apply that template - there are no items 1 through 3--it's replaced with Play and Scenes, and then the apparently requisite extra pages for chapters.

There are deeper controls over this I'm not finding yet, right?

rbowser

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 23. 2011 23:59

rbowser

Contributor Joined: Aug 08, 2011 16:48 Messages: 515 Offline

Aug 24, 2011 20:00

Perhaps I should be more patient, so pardon me if this isn't considered proper behavior on this forum--but I'm boosting this post to give the question more exposure.

How does one make a menu that has just one screen? In some cases I just need a picture for a splash screen, and buttons for 2 or 3 chapters.

rbowser

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Aug 24, 2011 22:37

How does one make a menu that has just one screen? In some cases I just need a picture for a splash screen, and buttons for 2 or 3 chapters.

Short answer: Can not be done in Powerdirector.

The menu structure in Powerdirector is always more than one screen if you have more that one chapter or Title.

The only other option is No Menu.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

rbowser

Contributor Joined: Aug 08, 2011 16:48 Messages: 515 Offline

Aug 24, 2011 22:58

Oh--Darn it. Thanks for the reply though, Carl.

Maybe I should start a different thread - because the other part I would like to understand is how to set the number of chapters displayed on a page. I see the menu at the bottom to set this, but it's always greyed out - Maybe the number of chapters is determined by the template?

If I could have the opening splash page, and then just One menu page with the total of 2 or 3 chapters, that would be ok--But when I tried to create a menu from scratch on this current project, my only choice was to have One chapter per page. It's silly to have pages going on and on just to get to where a viewer can click the chapters.

How to get that option activated for number of chapters per page?

rbowser

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Aug 25, 2011 11:05

Maybe I should start a different thread - because the other part I would like to understand is how to set the number of chapters displayed on a page.

You create a custom menu Template.

Or choose a template that has three or more chapters.
There are several in Powerdirector 9's create Disk module on the Menu Preferences tab.

Menu Designer PowerDirector 7, works in Powerdirector 9 also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOPlhOWdVSU
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

rbowser

Contributor Joined: Aug 08, 2011 16:48 Messages: 515 Offline

Aug 25, 2011 11:36

Hi, Carl - Thanks for the reply.

For this project I'm talking about, I made a custom template - but the option for choosing how many chapters would be on a page was greyed out. I was stuck with what apparently is the default of just one chapter a page--

Maybe there's something wrong with my installation of PD9, because I definitely didn't have the choice of choosing the number of chapters.

Thanks for the vid - He zipped by the step of choosing the number of chapters. He basically said "choose a template, number of chapters, ok here we go"--

If the number of chapters is hard-wired to those templates, I don't know why he said he was choosing the number - and I couldn't tell what he was doing, it went by so fast, and the superimposed text was on top of that part of the interface.

Maybe I just haven't found the right templates, but for a regular full movie DVD, I'd want to see more like 6 chapters on a screen.

I'll have to investigate more--all I know is that no matter what I choose, a pre-made template or a custom one, the option to choose the number of chapters isn't available.---Hmmmm.

rbowser

Quote:

Maybe I should start a different thread - because the other part I would like to understand is how to set the number of chapters displayed on a page.

You create a custom menu Template.

Or choose a template that has three or more chapters.
There are several in Powerdirector 9's create Disk module on the Menu Preferences tab.

Menu Designer PowerDirector 7, works in Powerdirector 9 also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOPlhOWdVSU

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 25. 2011 11:37

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Aug 25, 2011 11:51

Maybe I just haven't found the right templates, but for a regular full movie DVD, I'd want to see more like 6 chapters on a screen.

Powerdirector has a limit of 6 items on any scenes page for DVD, 4 items for Bluray.

As to how you add chapter items, you click on the Add Button at the top of the menu designer Window, then you position the button with the mouse where you want the button.

Don't forget to save the new template with a name.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 25. 2011 11:52

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

rbowser

Contributor Joined: Aug 08, 2011 16:48 Messages: 515 Offline

Aug 25, 2011 12:00

Quote:

Maybe I just haven't found the right templates, but for a regular full movie DVD, I'd want to see more like 6 chapters on a screen.

Powerdirector has a limit of 6 items on any scenes page for DVD, 4 items for Bluray.

As to how you add chapter items, you click on the Add Button at the top of the menu designer Window, then you position the button with the mouse where you want the button.

Don't forget to save the new template with a name.

Hello again, Carl - Thanks for all your help.

A limit of 6 items - I guess that's counting the navigation buttons? With Home, Forward, Backward - if those are included in the item count, that leaves only 3 chapters. wow--OK, that explains why I see all these 3 chapter templates. That's so limited. I'm accustomed to long projects having 6 chapters on a page.

Ah!--Click Add at the top for more chapters--Great, I didn't understand that. The greyed out menu I've been looking at is at the bottom of the screen where it looks like you're supposed to choose the number of chapters you want. I guess that must just be a display of how many you've added with the Add button. I see now, Thanks.

Yes, I'm saving custom templates - I'm finding I have to make and save a template for every project, but I guess that doesn't matter. --I do wish there were some more straight-forward, clean templates already made - most of these are so gimmicky, things I would never use.

I appreciate the help, thanks.

rbowser

rbowser

Contributor Joined: Aug 08, 2011 16:48 Messages: 515 Offline

Aug 25, 2011 12:58

A quick follow-up to my own post.

Carl, I see now I didn't understand you correctly when you said there was a limit to "six items" per chapter page. I thought you were counting the navigation buttons also, and I surmised that's why I see so many templates with just 3 chapters per page.

But now I've watched one of Cyberlink's tutorial videos about making a menu, and in it, the template is changed so six chapters are showing - the narrator says that's the maximum.

http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/tutorial/

Great! Much better - Glad to finally get things more straight in my head.

rbowser

DrDoc

Newbie Joined: Sep 03, 2011 16:39 Messages: 4 Offline

Sep 14, 2011 11:21

I am not able to SAVE custom menus in PD9.
After I modify some existing templates, I "save" in the menu designer, PD9 sez "saving", shows progress and then closes.
The new template (saved with a new name) doesn't show up in menu preferences. The folder My Documents/Cyberlink/Custom Menus is empty.
What am I missing or what am I doing wrong?

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Sep 14, 2011 13:28

The new template (saved with a new name) doesn't show up in menu preferences

See the picture.
You click the down arrow to select custom menus.


Filename	Custom menu_dropdown.jpg	Download
Description	Where the Custom menus are found.
Filesize	51 Kbytes
Downloaded:	187 time(s)

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

DrDoc

Newbie Joined: Sep 03, 2011 16:39 Messages: 4 Offline

Sep 15, 2011 09:03

Carl, thanks for your message. But when I select the custom menu, it shows empty.

I can't find where on my harddrive PD9 might be saving my customized templates; searching for .dzm files finds only those downloaded from DirectorZone.

My folder My Documents/Cyberlink/Custom Menus is empty.

Do you have any other suggestions that I could try?

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Sep 15, 2011 09:26

Hi Thomas,
Please start a new topic for your issue and questions. Posts become cluttered and confused.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/13638.page

Forum Moderator

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 15. 2011 09:28