Track screens & styles not working correctly

[azw]

I have 3 questions about using styles and smart objects in Music Disc Creator to create a music DVD.

 

1. When I save a style in Music Disc Creator, it doesn't seem to apply to the track screens. Each time I reapply a style, I have to redesign the track screens from scratch. Is there a way to save a style so it can be applied to track screens? Or is there a way to save a style that includes all track screens and all menus?

 

2. When I click on Smart Objects, one of the options in the drop-down menu above the preview pane is: "All menus and track screens". I've not been able to get that option to work. (Choosing "All menus and track screens" doesn't change the track screens.) Am I doing something wrong?

 

3. Also in MDC, when I'm using the "Large DVD Preview Panel" and have selected either a single track screen page or a page showing the listing of an album's tracks, the Style and Smart Objects options aren't clickable. Is that normal? I have to click up to a higher menu level to access those controls. Do you have any idea of what I'm doing wrong?

[jeanrosenfeld]

I'm confused by your question about label creator. Is it related to your first post about Music Disc creator, a separate problem (in which case best to start another thread with more details of any problem you have with label creator). Or did you mean to type Music disc creator?

 

 

 

Anyway, the answer to the question is: No you should not assume that styles are poorly implemented in Label Creator. I've not had any problems with styles in Label Creator.

 

 

 

As for Music disc creator, as far as I been able to find out, you can edit the smart menus on the parent menus; these are inherited by the child screens, which cannot be separately edited. In the case of items appearing under Track lists, these can be separately edited. So I don't think you are doing anything wrong.See pic.

 

I don't know about the save style with 'all menus and track screens' selected. It does not work the way you (and I) would expect. I don't know if that is a bug or by design, or whether I have not understood. You could save each menu style separately (select 'this menu' in the dropdown box). Then it will be less arduous to reselect them in a new project.

 

But if you want to have the same set of menu styles for several DVDs, there is an easier way. Open Music disc creator, do not add audio, edit the various menus as you wish then save as a project (call it 'DVD menu template', or whatever). You can subsequently open it and the various menu styles will be as you saved them. Then add the audio you want and save the project with a different name.

 

 

Edited to add hopefully clearer pic.

[azw]

Thanks for you reply, Jean. Yeah (blush), I mistyped. I meant MDC. (I've corrected that post.)

 

Are you saying there's not a way to save a global style which includes both menus and tracks? That'd be odd. It's one of the main styles feature I'd think we'd all want.

 

I've tried saving the track styling separately but wasn't able to get it applied correctly in another instance later.

 

I suspect that this detail may be related to the problem:

When you are in a track screen, you can't click on the style tool in the left-hand menu. You have to first open the style tool and then go to the track styles by clicking on "All track screens."

 

At any rate, I've still not seen any evidence that track styles can be transferred from one project to another. I'd be happy as a mosquito at a nudist camp if someone would be able to tell me how to do that.

 

You're probably right that saving a style with no tracks and then using that as a master to start all your new projects would be good. But I'm not sure it'll work if you already have a project filled with tracks. So far, I've found it to be difficult to go in the opposite direction. In other words, when I deleted tracks from a completed project, some of the styling fell apart.

[azw]

Should we assume that styles are poorly implemented in Label Creator?

[jeanrosenfeld]

I have not used Music disc creator that much to create music DVDs. I've just played about with it as part of a learning process, but not really in great depth. So I have very likely missed something that would save all the menus and screens in one custom style.

 

 

As far as track screens are concerned (i.e. the screen that shows when you select and play a particular track), I was able to save some custom styles for them. That at least saves having to redesign them each time. For testing purposes I changed an original style by changing the background image (because its easy to see if it has worked or not), but I assume that if I made other changes they would also be saved.

 

 

To create a track screen custom style: Open Music disc creator, add one or more audio files. Select the All tracks smart menu (or Track lists, or indeed any of the parent smart menus). Click Style. Select 'all track screens' in the drop down box, edit as required, and save as a custom style. You should then be able to apply that track screen style in any subsequent project (again select All tracks, select all track screens in the drop down box, select the custom style you want, cklick OK).

 

 

Obviously (or perhaps not) if you create a template project without any audio tracks in it (as I suggested earlier), it won't include the track screen style. But you could save the template project with one audio track, which you can then remove in new projects after having added the new tracks. However, like you, I find, for reasons I have not yet got to grips with, that the changes I've made and saved in a project have not always stuck when reopening the project. So saving separate custom styles for the smart menus (select 'this menu' in the drop down list) and for track screens, seems more reliable.

 

 

Not sure if the above is clear enough to follow.

 

 

Another thing I have so far failed to do is to have different track screens for different tracks. Maybe that is not possible, don't know. One other irritation is that the thumbnail in the Styles list for a custom style is that of the original style I started from (but the preview shows correctly, so I just click through the custom styles until I get the right one).

 

This is the blind leading the blind so far, perhaps someone with more experience in this topic could jump in :-)