I agree with that. The layout of buttoms, the choice of frames, & the position of the titles are all very limited.

Is there a feature in this Cyberlink Web site that we can download a more varied selection of these authoring tools. I have looked & can't find any such downloads.

Maybe that would be an idea for the future.

I agree with you. It's quite stifling to your productivity.

I am also familiar with Pinnacle Studio - and it let's the user create just about anything for a menu, title, background, etc. It's wide open. However, it costs lots more and is rife with crashes, errors, and frustration. Get into one of their forums and read some of their posts. You'll see. It's a tradeoff !

Also, don't overanalyze on that particular feature that you are not getting. If it's a fancy menu, think *really* how long is the user sitting on that menu admiring your work ? They don't .. they start watching your video. Know what I mean?

The Director software really is quite cheap when you think of what you are getting. I would go with it for a while and then see what other technology is on the horizon to give you your creativity. That is what I'm going to do!

regards,
CC

First of all, disclaimer: I don't recommend doing anything below because if you mess up one file, or anything in any file (especially an xml one), PowerDirector can become unstable, crash, etc. It can become impossible to even enter Create mode. Ask me how I know.

At the very least, make a copy of the entire original Menus folder (see below) so that you can copy it back if something goes wrong.

To answer your question Justin, yes, it can be done, but it may or may not be simple depending on what you want to do. All of the menu information is in C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector\PowerDirector (or some similar folder depending on how you installed).

If you navigate from there down to Menus\[menu_group_of_your_choice]\Background you find the JPEG's that make the background images of this menu group. You can swap in your own image, with the same file name. That is the simplest thing to do.

It is also possible to change the number of buttons in a menu, what they look like (whether or not they have video, or are simply images, what the frames around the video look like, etc.), how they highlight, and where they appear on the screen. But these things often involve editing xml files, and it is not trivial to do it right and not mess anything up.

The only thing I haven't found out how to do yet is how to add sub-menus (you know, click on a menu button and get a sub-set of menu buttons). If anyone knows, please post.

ah Ha! thanks for this.... way cool.

I spent about 1/2 hr surfing thru the menus, trying to figure out how to do it and then I got pulled away.

It never occurred to me to 'swap out' the jpg file. I will definitely be doing this!
thanks!!

CC

FAB I love you Bex x

This is a long winded way to alter a menu background...

Try this method for goodness sake!

Dafydd