4. Working with DVD Menus
After you've selected the content that will be
included on the DVD movie and have set the DVD options, you can move on
to the next step in the Windows DVD Maker wizard and select a menu
style. As shown in Figure 7,
this second and final step in the wizard can be skipped altogether if
you like the default menu style: simply click the Burn button and off
you go.
NOTE
When you click the Next button to move to the
second phase of the DVD Maker wizard, you will notice there is no
corresponding Back button. That's because Windows DVD Maker adheres to
a silly application style that debuted in Windows Vista: a round
graphical Back button is illogically located in the upper-left corner
of the application window. It resembles the Back button in Internet
Explorer (that is, it's a white arrow in a blue circle). Why it's not
next to a similar Next button is quite unclear.
It makes sense to spend a bit of time here and
experiment with the built-in menu styles, as you might not be too
excited by the default choice. Besides, you can do a number of other
things here, including previewing the DVD, changing the menu text,
customizing the menu, and adding music to and changing options for the
photo slide show. We will look at those options in the next section.
Along the right side of the application window is a
list of menu styles, each presented with a visual thumbnail to give you
a rough idea of how it will appear in your DVD. Windows DVD Maker comes
with roughly 20 DVD menu styles, and some are actually pretty decent.
None, alas, are new to Windows 7: these themes all appeared in the
Windows Vista version of this application as well.
To select and preview a different menu style, simply
select it in the list. After churning for a few moments, the DVD menu
preview display will change to reflect your selection, as shown in Figure 8.
Each menu style is quite different. Some offer an
animated video preview running behind the menu text, while others offer
multiple video previews, running simultaneously, or even animated menu
text that flies in from the sides of the screen. Be sure to experiment
here.
