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  1. Member
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    I would like to create 100 text menu links (to chapters) on my DVD menu.

    The selections would simply be 1 2 3 4 5 6...100

    Is there a quick way of doing this in Photoshop other than making 100 layer groups one by one?
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  2. Always Watching guns1inger's Avatar
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    Actions in Photoshop will save you a lot of time. Think of them as Macros. Just record and run.

    However :

    There is a limit of 32 links on a 4:3 menu, and 16 ( or 18 ) on a widescreen (16:9) menu. This is a DVD spec limitation, not an Encore limitation.
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    "Actions" thanks, I will check that out, hopefully it's not too too hard to figure out, but probably worth it to save all that manual crud...

    Also thanks for letting me know about the limit on the # of links on a menu. Question though - Why is the limit so much smaller for 16:9 menus? (I'm using 4:3)
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  4. Always Watching guns1inger's Avatar
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    I am guessing that it is to allow for letterboxing on 4:3 displays, which effectively reduces the available space.

    He is a quick how to on photoshop actions, from Microsoft, of all places

    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/automating.mspx
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    Wow this looks WAY out of my league =(
    It appears that I will spend as much or more time just attempting to learn Actions as I would by just duplicating the layer over and over and over and over again...
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    In other words, I figure I can make an action to make duplicates of each of these buttons, but then I see two issues:

    1) They will all be stacked on top of one another (this is what happens when you duplicate a layer)

    2) They will all have the same name

    So then I'd have to go in and move them off each other, one one by one, plus change the text for each one, one at a time.. unless there's some some of incremental function to tell it to create 1, 2, 3, 4... ?
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  7. Always Watching guns1inger's Avatar
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    Your action could duplicate the layer, then shift the new layer down a certain amount. This means that wherever it is run, the new layer will always be lower down the page than the old one.

    Every duplicate will by named with "Copy of" at the start, just as you would get with a manual duplication. Again, you can rename the layer in the action, although I haven't played enough to know if you can incrementally number them.

    Give me a couple of minutes and I'll see if I can get something started for you.

    Edit : OK. Attached is a simple action to duplicate and move a layer. Create your first text layer positioned at the top of the menu, then run the action to create a new layer and shift it down. Run it as many times as necessary to get all your layers. It is pretty simplistic, so don't expect miracles.

    gregs%20actions.rar
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    Greg, thanks, I will have a look in the morning and let you know!! =)
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    Hi again, I loaded your action and see how it works, thank you.. I then started trying to find something, anything on the net as far as incremental naming of layers with an action but cannot find a single thing as of yet... I imagine it's got to exist, a simple +1 naming action or something...
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    By the way, I think the number of menu links is 36, not 32, at least according to DVD Demystified:

    3.7 How do the interactive features work?
    Each menu has a still or motion background and up to 36 highlightable, rectangular "buttons" (only 12 if widescreen, letterbox, and pan & scan modes are used).
    Am I reading that correctly for a standard DVD? It was also suggested that I use the chapter index menu function in Encore to accomplish what I need so I'm reading on that now too...
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  11. Always Watching guns1inger's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by sdsumike619
    Hi again, I loaded your action and see how it works, thank you.. I then started trying to find something, anything on the net as far as incremental naming of layers with an action but cannot find a single thing as of yet... I imagine it's got to exist, a simple +1 naming action or something...
    The problem is that Actions are just simple macro recordings of keystrokes. You can also embed menu items and dialogues that any filter might require, however none of these allow for simple incremental naming. The other alternative would be scripting, but you need to know javascript to get much out of it. It would probably do everything you need, but the time it would take to develop would be far longer than the time it takes to make the menu. If you were going to be using it over and over it would be worth it.

    As to the numbers, DVD demystified will be more accurate than my memory. 36 and 12 sound right. At least that removes one extra menu page for this project.
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