What 'save' did you click? File > Save in the menu? If so, that saves the project. Nothing should change when reopened, but if you re-apply the same menu it will go back to default. You should also be able to navigate around PD without it changing. I often go back to Edit.

In Modify you can add buttons. There is a tutorial on YouTube, but I don't have the address handy. Look up the user PDToots. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Thanks, Jamie-esque. I'm really desperate to understand this. My post is way too long, but I think I got it down to two questions and an oddity begging explanation.

There might be a way, though my gut says it's be a frustrating waste, using the amount of time/effort now going into these question posts, that I can get something done using what feels like work-arounds, but that won't be like learning the program, and will be hard to repeat or build on. And I need help with that.

You ask how I saved. In the screenshot of where I was I think there is a "save" icon called "save project" toward the left end of the very top bar. I presume it is the same function as "save project" under File. I used that.

I can go in now, without the project loaded (so I thought - see oddity) on this laptop, and make changes, save project, and the menu/template changes aren't saved.

To duplicate my experience: I go into "create disc." Before I select any template there's already some generic menu/template showing, with the essential buttons already there. Good. (For all I know, it's one I picked a long time ago, but in my case it has title, plus play and scenes buttons and looks usable, unlike what I get if I go into "Modify," expecting to see the template I selected to modify. See note on buttons below.) And I can make changes on it. I can change the background (well, I did, my frame's not there now), move boxes/buttons, and change text. I make changes, and "save."

This page apparently can't be closed. I can leave it, as you point our, by going to "edit." But on return to "Create Disc," it's still there. Without restarting the program I don't know how to test the "save" other than by selecting and "applying" a template.

So now I select a template. (OK, maybe I should say "select another" template, but when I went in to "Create Disc," there was already one there, I didn't select or apply anything.) Again, you can make changes. Now "save" that.

Now go back to the original "saved" template. Your work is lost. Try re selecting the selected (or second) template. Again, changes lost.

I think you understand all this, and it doesn't bother you, as you said "if you re-apply the same menu it will go back to default." That seems to be exactly what happens, which means that the changes made were not saved at all? The "same menu" was unchanged by the "save?" What, if anything, was saved?

I can, as you say, "navigate around PD without it changing." But I can't actually save the changes? If I go to another template, or leave the program, the changes are just gone? When I select a template I've changed and saved, I expect to see the changed template, not be taken back to square one.

A) How can I save those changes? (Or why can I make changes that cannot be saved?)

I have to go to "modify" for an effective change? When I go to modify I don't see the template I expect. It's similar but the important buttons are gone and replaced with items that are for what? So I back out of that unfriendly space.

I've seen/read a lot, and I know I'm supposed to be able to add buttons, and I'll look at the PD Toots, but setting the function of a button? Recall nothing on that, and can't imagine how. Calling a button "play" isn't going to make it that, and I'm not sure I've seen anything on how to even tell a button from a text box. So I want to stay where there are "play" and "scenes" buttons.

B) How do I get the "play" and "scenes" buttons I have before I go into Modify to stay there when I go to Modify? If I created them I don't recall how, and if they are part of the template, or were "given" to me, which I'm pretty sure is the case, why are they stripped in Modify? Seems senseless, so I feel I have fundamental misunderstanding.

Oddity:
See screenshot. My video isn't on this laptop, but the PD file is, and this is what I get when I go into "menu structure." So everything isn't lost, at least not on this computer. I just don't know how to get to it. That's odd. I'd like to "modify" it but no existing template carries anything like what I see here in "menu structure." I can double-click on elements in the structure here and see what I've done is there. Most of it.

The chapter titles, the thumbnails, the general structure, all there. But the main title and page names are "back to default."
So some work was saved, other work not, and I can't access any of it. Odd.

By access, I mean use. I take it I need to be able to click on a template, apply it, and burn from that. And click on a template, enter "modify," and have this work there to modify. But I have no template that takes me to any of this work. (That's not just on this computer, where, with the PD program obviously loaded per the structure shown, there is no "elk 2010" template, but also on my main computer, where there are two "elk" templates but they don't call this up, just some (relatively) fancy text editing.)

Ideas? Anyone? This is very discouraging.

I'm not getting responses to my too-long question so I'll try editing it down here:

To duplicate my experience: I go into "create disc." Before I select any template there's already some generic menu/template showing, with the essential buttons already there. Good. And I can make changes on it. I can change the background (well, I did, my frame's not there now), move boxes/buttons, and change text. I make changes, and "save," using the only save function available here, "save project."

To get off this page, which apparently can't be closed, I select a template. (OK, maybe I should say "select another" template, but when I went in to "Create Disc," there was already one there, I didn't select or apply anything.) Again, you can make changes. Now "save" that.

Now go back to the original "saved" template. Your work is lost. Try re selecting the selected (or second) template. Again, changes lost.

I think "Jamie-esque" (prior response) understands all this, and it's no bother, as he says "if you re-apply the same menu it will go back to default." That seems to be exactly what happens, which means that the changes made were not saved at all? The "same menu" was unchanged by the "save?" What, if anything, was saved?

A) How can I save those changes? (Or why can I make changes that cannot be saved?)

I have to go to "modify" for an effective (saveable) change? When I go to modify I don't see the template I expect. It's similar but the important buttons are gone and replaced with "items" that are for what?

I want to stay where there are "play" and "scenes" buttons, as I've never seen how to create these functions.

B) How do I get the "play" and "scenes" buttons I have before I go into Modify to stay there when I go to Modify? If I created them I don't recall how, and if they are part of the template, or were "given" to me, which I'm pretty sure is the case, why are they stripped in Modify? Seems senseless, so I feel I have fundamental misunderstanding.

Oddity:
See screenshot. This is what I get when I go into "menu structure." I can double-click on elements in the structure here and see what I've done is there. Most of it.

The chapter titles, the thumbnails, the general structure, all there. But the main title and page names are "back to default."
So some work was saved, other work not, but I can't access any of it. Odd.

By access, I mean use. I take it I need to be able to click on a template, apply it, and burn from that. And click on a template, enter "modify," and have this work there to modify. But I have no template that takes me to any of this work. (That's not just on this computer, where, with the PD program obviously loaded per the structure shown, there is no "elk 2010" template, but also on my main computer, where there are two "elk" templates but they don't call this up, just some (relatively) fancy text editing.)

Ideas? Anyone? This is very discouraging.

Hi John,
You've certainly written a lot and it's way too much.

Here are a few questions.
1. What are you attempting to do? What is your intent?
2. I see you've added a number of titles to your own menu, why? Keep your answer short please..

A MENU title displayed on the DVD should be short.

Titles within the video can be as long as you wish. You appear, from the image 3.png, to be adding video titles to the DVD menu, why? Keep your answer short please.

Post on the forum and ask the question - make sure it is concise and easily understood. Your current posting style needs to be improved.

Edited my text

Thanks very much for the response, Dafudd.

- Responding to Q1 ("What are you attempting to do?"):

In a word, Save. "How to save from here -(opening of create disc)." "Here" being the screen shot in my 7-23 message (attached again here). With Tony's help, I think "here" must be after "Apply" in create disc - not in Modify.

Less specifically, I am trying to create a menu. I was able to create a complete menu in that space. Previewed fine. Just can't save it, or can't find it after "save project."

Can see some of the work when go to "Menu Structure" but can't access it to work on or use it - it's not in any template I select. (Even there, in menu structure, some titles reverted from mine to "my videos," odd.)

Tried to provide a step-by-step illustration of this difficulty in prior posts.

- Responding to your Q2 (I see you've added a number of titles to your own menu, why?):

If you're referring to the two color/stylized text boxes on the title (root) page, I'm naming my video and who's in it. (These boxes are the elements I am unable to do anything with from "here.")

You mention that A MENU title displayed on the DVD should be short, but that Titles within the video can be as long as you wish. Not sure why this is - and you mention that "[I] appear, from the image 3.png, to be adding video titles to the DVD menu, why?"

If you refer to the "my videos" pages behind the main title, they are there to hold my ten chapters. I'd have put all ten on the main title page, but the limit is four for BluRay and this template had three. I called the pages "Chapters, Page 1," etc.

Hope this helps you to help me. At risk of going long, beyond the save question, I am trying to understand the program - sensing a fundamental misunderstanding operating as a block. My current best understanding is that the program allows changes to made (from "here" - in "create disc" outside of Modify) that cannot be saved, and that doesn't compute. I do believe my longer versions offer a better view of "where I am."

I appreciate any light you - or anyone - can offer.

Thanks,

John