Text Buttons DVD Architect Pro 5

[Mike Kujbida]

…to produce a text-only button…

Not that I’m aware of.

…set the size and font to my specific settings.

It’s a bit of a workaround but here’s my method.
Most of the DVDs I create use text only buttons so, after I load the files I want on a specific page, I lasso everything, right-click and select Text Only, then set the font and size as desired and then position the buttons as desired.

[Rick Wise]

Thanks!

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Joe Mantaratz]

Here is what I do for what you are asking. I create all of my buttons, text etc outside of DVDA and then bring them in after they are properly rendered. I prefer to have them all exactly as I need then to appear and behave in my NLE. Then on import to DVDA I select a button, properties, text only and then I erase the text. So in essence I have created a hotspot. All it have to do it drag and size the box to where it coincides with my imported video text. This avoids the recompression when you add buttons and gives you much greater leeway to creating a professional looking DVD. Hope this is clear if not I’ll be glad to go into it more it depth.

[Mike Kujbida]

Joe, thanks for the excellent tip.
I’ve done it that way before but there may be others who have never thought of doing it that way.
BTW, I’ve never had my DVDs recompressed because I’ve added buttons – and my most recent project had 28 buttons (22 song Christmas concert with 2 pages of buttons).

[Joe Mantaratz]

Hi Mike,
I use video for my backgrounds and brought it in using the proper settings, added a couple of buttons and voila …recompressed it.
Here is the thread where this was discussed
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/24/903048#903048

[Mike Kujbida]

Joe, as discussed in that thread, DVDA will recompress if you add any form of video to your menu.
If it’s just buttons & stills though, no recompression will occur.

[Joe Mantaratz]

Thanks Mike

[Rob Strobbe]

The default button style is determine by the theme currently applied. If you want your buttons to automatically be text, then use a theme with text buttons (I believe DVDA ships with only one) or make your own theme.

Rob

[Alan Crosthwaite]

Unfortunately you can’t just copy and paste buttons from one place to another and I didn’t find any way of setting the default from Arial, auto etc to something else. But what you can do is to copy the properties you have set for an object (eg button) from one object to another. In the case of a text only button this is how:

Insert a first empty text only button in your project to use as a master and set the text style, size, etc as well as transparency, colour and position etc to your requirements. Right click on the newly created button and select copy.

Insert another empty button where wanted in your project and give it the style you want eg text only. For some reason this style choice cannot be copied…. Right click on the new button and, in the menu “paste attributes”, select the attribute you want to copy or just “all”. Depending on what you select, the appropriate properties are copied to the new button including it’s transparency and position which is great for getting your buttons placed in the same regular place.

This does make it a lot faster than creating each button from scratch although it whould have been nicer to be able to just copy a button and then “paste in place” like can be done in a lot of software.

[Alan Crosthwaite]

Thanks Rob for your comment about using the create style function to set the default text for the button. But it seems that the other button properties remain as in default. Anyway, by combining your solution with what I say above that will certainly speed button creation up a lot.