| A hallmark of the Macintosh has been the capability to change the appearance of text onscreen. Sure, every computer now offers dozens of fonts and styles, but in 1984 that capability was a big deal. So it's sensible that you can change the font, alignment, and color of your menu titles, buttons, and text blocks. To edit text formatting: 1. | Click the text block you want to edit. | 2. | If you're formatting the menu's title or you selected a text block you created, click the Menu button to display the Menu pane (Figure 21.1). Figure 21.1. Change the formatting of the menu title or stand-alone text blocks in the Menu pane. If you selected a button label, click the Buttons button to display the Buttons pane (Figure 21.2). Figure 21.2. Button label formatting is handled in the Buttons pane. | | | 3. | In the Title, Text, or Label area (the name changes depends on what's selected in the menu), set the following attributes: - Family. Choose a font family from this popup menu to change the font.
- Typeface. Choose the style of font from this popup menu.
- Size. Choose a font size from this popup menu.
- Color. Click the Color field to display the Colors palette and choose a new color (Figure 21.3).
Figure 21.3. iDVD uses the Mac OS X Colors palette to choose from the full spectrum of colors. - Shadow. Drop shadows are often overused in design, but in DVD menus they often make the text more readable. Click this checkbox to add a subtle drop shadow behind the text.
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To reset text to the theme's default formatting: 1. | Select the text block you want to change back to the theme's formatting. | 2. | Click the Reset Text button (Menu pane) or Reset Label button (Buttons pane). |
Tips | | If you want to change the appearance of a menu's title, you don't need to select anything first; the text controls in the Menu pane apply to the title by default. Hooray! In previous editions of this book, I've complained that you couldn't simply choose a standard font size (such as 12 point), but had to rely on an inaccurate slider. Now, in iDVD 6 ... you can. More good news! iDVD 6 lets you apply formatting changes to each text block or button label independently (Figure 21.4). The old restrictions of applying one font for all button labels is gone, gone, gone. However, remember that just because you can use all sorts of crazy fonts on your menu doesn't mean you should. Figure 21.4. Could and should are two very different terms. Restraint is an even better word.
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