Text-Only menu in Premier Elements 3.0

[absnj]

I am looking to make a Text-Only menu (no buttons other than the text) for concert videos.

IE, click on the song title and the video plays. I would normally have 12 - 16 songs, so it may be necessary to have a main title page and two sub-menus. With the standard templates, the titles tend to be too long, and enlarging the entire field makes the picture portion of the button too big, or permits only a couple of titles per page.

Help appreciated,

Thanks!!

[ATR]

absni

I am almost ready to suggest a step by step process for your consideration. However, first I need to know:

In Premiere Elements 3, DVD Menus, do you have under General, one named Generic One?

ATR

[ATR]

Also, are you in a NTSC (USA) or PAL location?

ATR

[absnj]

I am in the USA, so I use NTSC and I do have a Generic One template.

Alan

[ATR]

abanj

I experimented with the idea of modifying an existing DVD template, and this worked for me as I tried to keep in the context of your question. Although I have Photoshop Elements 6/Premiere Elements 4, I used Photoshop Elements 6/Premiere Elements 2 for this experiment.

When Premiere Elements 3 came along, all the DVD templates needed to be in PAL sizing whether you were setting up for a NTSC project or PAL project. So I am not sure about the name of the corresponding template in Premiere Elements 3.....

DVD Template as displayed in Premiere Elements 2 (offers 8 scene selections per page to start with)
generic1_ntsc_s_mm.psd
generic1_ntsc_s_sm.psd

Intent: Using generic1_ntsc_s_sm.psy, modify it:
1. For each Scene Selection, in the corresponding Layer Set turn off visibility of the (=1) highlight layer and (%) video layer, followed by rearranging the text
OR
2. For each Scene Selection, downsize the highlight to mini button size, then turn off visibility of ONLY the (%) video layer, followed by rearranging the text.

I have road tested both in the Premiere Elements Preview as well as the burned DVD-VIDEO via the TV/DVD player. Both work easily in the Premiere Elements Preview. However, with my TV and its Remote, I favored "2" since I could see what I was clicking on. Remote clicking in "1" let me switch to another scene, but it was not always clear which one had selected.

General Comments:
1. DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS you take the original DVD template, move it to a safe location, copy it the General Folder, and rename the copy to read "Generic One".
2. You should be able to find the DVD template via Program Files/Adobe/Premiere Elements/en_US/General/Generic One/generic1_ntsc_s_sm.psd (see above comment about name in PE3)
3. Make sure that your project is setup in the Premiere Elements setup with the Preset of NTSC DV Standard.
4. You will find in Photoshop Elements, that in dealing with the highlight downsizing and text rearrangement, it is essential to have the Move Tool selected.
5. When you click on generic1_ntsc_s_sm.psd, it should open in Photoshop Elements. Each Scene Selection is in separate layer sets. It is essential that these layer set are opened to reveal the text layer as well as the highlight layer and % video layer. These layer set were found opened in Photoshop Elements 6 when I opened this template.

Think about this idea and, if necessary, I will go into finer details.

Take a look at this link before you start:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc24d89

ATR

[ATR]

Add On....

You can modify this template to have more than 8 scene selections.

If necessary, I can go into details on how to add more scene selections, but add carefully so as not to overcrowd.

ATR

[Chuck Engels]

There are some text only templates at Muvipix you might be interested in checking out

http://muvipix.com/products.php?maincat_id=7&subcat_id=8
http://muvipix.com/products.php?page=3&maincat_id=7&subcat_id=10

We also accept suggestions for future templates and Steve is great at helping people create their own. He also has a very good article on modifying existing templates.

[ATR]

CE

Thanks for the links, but I just did not see a Playlist Text Only DVD Template over there, on the free and fee related lists that you gave.

Which one did you specifically have in mind that you would not have to modify significantly to compile with the goal presented?

ATR

[Chuck Engels]

ATR, There are a number of text only DVD Menu Templates and the only change needed would be to replace the background, a very simple process right in Premiere Elements.

[ATR]

Specifically which ones? I followed your links but much have missed them? What were the names of the templates that you had in mind?

ATR

[Chuck Engels]

Wow ATR, I stand corrected and apologize for not knowing the content on my own site well enough. The only 'Text Only' Template is a Encore DVD template of mine, I had thought for sure that Steve had done a few of those.

I can tell you that there will be some of those in the very near future :)

Again, sorry for posting without looking first :o

[ATR]

Thanks for the clarification. I thought that it was me, overlooking it.

Those DVD templates can be additive once you start working on them, editing existing ones as well as creating new ones from scratch. My greatest gain was figuring out how to add more selections to an 8 selection existing template.

I am not set up to create new DVD templates from scratch, so for now I need to refine my techniques for editing existing ones.

ATR

[absnj]

Thanks for your help on this... my daughter does Photoshop, so she gets the task of making the changes.

[ATR]

absnj

Please let us know the outcome.

Unless your schedule does not permit it, what about you and your daughter working on this project together? That sounds like a fun family project...another "unless", too many cooks in the kitchen???

I will be watching for any further reports.

ATR