Menu controls and nesting

[brucemck2]

I successfully used Premiere Elements over the weekend to burn a simple DVD for my daughter's Spanish class. Imported video, moved various segments around, adjusted lengths, added Main and a Scenes Menus, and added rolling credits at the end.

Wanted to do the following but could not for the life of me figure out how:

Wanted four buttons on the main menu, one for the Movie, a second for the Bloopers, a third for Scenes in the Main movie, and a fourth for an alternative version of the movie. But I could not figure out how to get multiple buttons onto the Main menu. (I did manage to get multiple scene buttons onto the Scene munu at least.)

Wanted to return the viewer back to the main menu at the end of the Movie, at the end of the Bloopers, and at the end of the alternative movie.

Wanted to take the viewer back to the Scenes menu at the end of any scene that was selected off the Scene menu.

All a long winded way of asking: How to set up multiple starting points on the main menu, how to return to the main menu at the end of a section, and how to set up a nested menu (the scene menu in the above example).

Thanks!!

[Chuck Engels]

Can't do that in Premiere Elements, sorry.

[Byron Gale]

(I almost feel like I am about to contradict Chuck a little bit - and I don't like it!! :( )

With one exception, everything you list can be done.

Using DVD Markers, place a Main Menu Marker at the beginning of each segment you wish to have represented by a button on the Main Menu. Place a Stop Marker at the point at which you wish the viewer to be returned to the Main Menu.

Using an example of four buttons on the Main Menu, your timeline might look like this (I have used Letters in place of the names you might assign):

Main Menu Marker A
- Clip A
- Stop Marker
Main Menu Marker B
- Clip B
- Stop Marker
Main Menu Marker C
- Clip C (with Scene Markers set at various points)
- Stop Marker (not really needed if nothing else is on the timeline)

This creates three buttons on the Main Menu. The Scenes button will be automatically created by the DVD template you choose, and the scene buttons will automatically be created on the Scenes Menu.

This will do everything you describe except for returning to the Scenes menu after viewing a scene. What will happen is that clicking a scene button will take you to the corresponding point in Clip C, but it will then play through to the next Stop Marker.

The only alternative I can envision is creating Clip C with no Scene Markers, but creating a duplicate of it -- Clip D, with NO Main Menu Marker. Then, you could place Scene Markers AND Stop Markers throughout Clip D.

This would place the Scene Markers on the Scenes Menu, but at the end of each scene, the viewer would be returned to the Main Menu.

I know of no way to return the viewer to the Scenes menu.

Admittedly, I am a novice, so you should be open to other opinions!!

Byron

[Chuck Engels]

Very Good Byron :) I should have read the post a little closer, sorry :o

[brucemck2]

Thank you! Works like a charm!

My project is short enough that the duplication to get the scenes sub menu structure works fine.