Menu Creation

You can add menu markers to mark additional movies, chapters, scenes, and stop points in the DVD or Blu-ray disc after you have finished editing your movie. Adobe Premiere Elements creates a menu based on the markers. If you later rearrange clips in the Timeline or Sceneline, the markers remain in their original locations, so you might have to update their locations and edit their names to keep them relevant to the movie.

The type of menu markers you add to the Timeline depends upon how you want your viewers to access the video. In general, use these guidelines:

• Use main menu markers (and stop markers) to divide the video into separate movies. Buttons on the main menu link to main menu markers.

• Use scene markers (without stop markers) when you want the movie to play from start to finish, and also want your viewer to be able to jump ahead to specific scenes. Scene buttons link to scene markers and appear on scene menus one after another (not grouped by movie).

• Use stop markers to designate the end of a movie. When the disc player reaches a stop marker, it returns to the main menu. If you add a stop marker to the Timeline, a disc player doesn’t play the movie from start to finish. Therefore, you generally add stop markers only if you’ve divided your video into separate movies, and don’t need to play the clips in the Timeline from beginning to end.

  Note: You can use both main menu markers and scene markers in a movie. However, you must remember that once the disc player encounters a stop marker, it returns to the main menu, not the menu from which it was called.
  
• Relationship between menu markers and the menu templates 

  
  

  A. Media Start B. Stop marker C. Main Menu marker D. Scene marker

  Move or delete a menu or scene marker

  Whether you placed a marker automatically or manually, you can move and delete markers easily.

  You can delete individual markers or clear all markers from the Timeline at once. If you have edited your movie since you first selected menu templates, you may find it is easier to delete all the markers rather than drag them to new positions.

  Note: If you have already selected a template, deleting a marker also deletes the button associated with the marker from the main menu or scenes menu.

• Edit menu or scene marker attributes

  After you place a marker, you can change its name, type (scene, main menu, or stop), and the thumbnail image displayed in a thumbnail button on a menu. The marker names become the button names in the main menu or scenes menu.

  Some menu buttons include thumbnail images of the video to which they are linked. By default, the thumbnail displays the frame visible at the marker. You can change the marker to better suit the content. For example, for a button representing a scene of a day at the beach, you might want to change the button image to a close‑up of the kids splashing in the water rather than the frame marked by the marker. Changing a thumbnail for a button does not change the start point of the video to which the button is linked.

  1. In the Timeline, double‑click the marker you want to edit, or locate the marker using the Previous and Next buttons.
  2. In the Menu Marker dialog box, do any of the following, and then click OK:
     • o rename the marker, type a name for the marker in the text box. Text in this box doesn’t wrap, so to place the name on multiple lines, press Ctrl+Enter for each new line. Keep the name short so that it fits in the menu and doesn’t overlap another button. (You can adjust the name later, after you select a template.)
     • o change the marker type, select the type of marker you want to set in the Marker Type menu.
     • o change the thumbnail for the button, drag the Thumbnail Offset timecode to select the image you want displayed in the button thumbnail in the menu. If you choose a menu with thumbnail images, the image you select displays in the menu when you create the disc. (This thumbnail is for the menu display only; the video linked to the button starts at the marker location.)

  Choose a disc menu template

  When you choose a disc menu template, don’t be concerned if it doesn’t have enough menu buttons to match each marker in the movie. Adobe Premiere Elements creates additional menus and buttons as needed.

  When you select a template, the button text on the menus changes to the names you’ve given the menu and scene markers. If you added the markers automatically or haven’t named the markers, you can name them and change the title of the menu after you select the template. If you don’t provide marker names, the buttons remain as named in the template.

  You usually add menu and scene markers before you select a template, but it isn’t required. You can add, move, or delete markers after choosing a template. The disc menus are adjusted dynamically to match the markers, adding or deleting buttons as necessary.

  Note: If your project uses HDV project settings, make sure to choose an HD template. You can recognize HD templates by the “HD” in the upper-right corner of the template in the Tasks panel.

  1. Click the Create Menus in the Tasks panel.

     This opens the Disc Layout panel and Templates view.

  2. In Templates view, select a template with a theme matching that of your project. If you have used main menu markers, choose a template with at least three buttons on the main menu. (The first button is labeled Play Movie and the second, Scenes. Additional buttons link to scene markers in the Timeline.)
  3. Click Apply. The buttons are linked to the markers in the Timeline and the marker names are inserted for the button text.
  4. You may be asked whether you want to add scene markers automatically. If you click Yes, select one of the following options, and then click OK:

     At Each Scene

     Places a scene marker at each edit point (cut) between clips on the Video 1 track.

     
     

     Every _ Minutes

     Places scene markers at the interval you specify. (This option is available only when the movie contains several minutes of footage.)

     
     

     Total Markers

     Spaces your markers evenly across the entire range of clips in the Timeline.

     Note: If you choose not to add markers automatically at this time, you can add them later. Adobe Premiere Elements updates menus dynamically, adding main menu marker buttons or scenes menus and buttons if you add markers.

     
     

  5. Click the thumbnail of the menu on the bottom of the Disc Layout panel to view a menu. If necessary, use the scroll bar to scroll to the thumbnail you want to view, or resize the panel so that the thumbnails are displayed side by side.

  After you choose a template, you can customize the menu, preview the disc, or burn the disc.

• Switch to a different menu template

  If you decide you don’t like your choice of disc menus, you can easily change to a different template. You will lose any changes you made to menu titles, non‑marker button names (Play button or Scenes button), and text settings (font, color, style, and so on). You won’t lose changes you made to backgrounds and marker buttons (main menu markers and scene markers) When you edit button text, you actually change the name of the menu marker, and the new marker name is used when generating the new menus.

  1. Click the Templates button  in the Tasks panel.
  2. Drag a new template from Templates view of the Tasks panel onto the Disc Layout panel. Adobe Premiere Elements displays the new menus in the Disc Layout panel.

  Edit menu text and buttons

  After you select the template, you can change menu text or the appearance of any of the main menu or scene buttons. You can also delete any button. Because the buttons are linked to the markers, deleting a button deletes the marker that generated it.

  1. At the bottom of the Disc Layout panel, click the thumbnail of the menu you want to change.
  2. To edit text or buttons not connected to markers, double‑click the menu title or button and edit the text in the Change Text dialog box. To use multiple lines, press Ctrl+Enter for each new line. Click OK.
  3. To edit buttons connected to markers, double‑click the text or button, do any of the following in the Menu Marker dialog box, and then click OK:

     • To rename the marker (and the button in the menu), type a new name and click OK. To use multiple lines, press Ctrl+Enter for each new line. Keep the name short so that it fits in the menu and doesn’t overlap another button.

     • To select the image you want displayed in the button thumbnail in the menu, drag the Thumbnail Offset timecode, and click OK. (This thumbnail is for the menu display only. If you select the Motion Menu Button option, the video linked to the button starts at the marker location.)

     • To delete a button, click Delete. The marker is deleted from the Timeline and the button from the menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the button’s marker in the Timeline, and choose Clear Menu Marker.

  Customize menu backgrounds

  You can personalize your menu background with either a video clip, a video clip with audio, an audio clip, a still image, or a still image with audio. When you edit a menu, the Properties view of the Tasks panel opens by default.

  1. At the bottom of the Disc Layout panel, click the thumbnail of the menu you want to change.
  2. Select a clip or still image in the Tasks panel and do either of the following:

     • Drag the clip or still image to the background of the menu in the Disc Layout panel.

     • Drag the clip or still image to the Video Or Still drop zone in Properties view of the Tasks panel. Alternatively, you can click Browse to locate a clip on your hard drive. If the clip contains both video and audio, you can drag it to either drop zone.

     

     Dragging an audio clip from Project view of the Tasks panel to the Audio drop zone in the Properties view for a menu. Note Video Or Still drop zone above the Audio drop zone.

     
     
     Note: When both video and audio are set and you replace one of the clips, the other clip remains set, unless you select background video that also contains audio. In that case, the background audio overrides the existing audio.
  3. Specify settings in Properties view of the Tasks panel:

     Reset

     Sets the background to the original template background.

     
     

     In Point

     Sets the In Point of the video or audio clip. Drag the timecode to the desired frame.

     
     

     Play

     Plays media in the thumbnail. The icon changes from the Play button  to the Pause button . Click the Pause button to stop the playback and set the In Point of the background.

     
     

     Use Still Frame

     Sets the current frame in the video clip as a still background image. Drag the timecode to set the frame.

     
     

     Apply Default Transition Before Loop

     Adds the transition you’ve set as the default each time the video starts from the beginning.

     
     

     Duration

     Sets the duration of background video or audio from the In points.

     
     

     Apply To All Menus

     Applies the background to all disc menus.