Suggestion for Inital Flowcharts in Adobe Illustrator

Question

Ive been doing some very intricate DVD projects (intricate for me, at least) and have found that I was spending far too much time with pencil & paper doing my flowcharts, before I began the Project. I was also using up erasers faster than I could replace them from Staples. Since I had Adobe Illustrator on my workstation and my laptop, I went to it for assistance.
My general workflow follows:
Open an new AI document (8.5"x14" landscape works fine, and I have used 11"x17" for my wide-carriage printer too, when we had dozens of Menus and Assets) and begin just like the Flowchart in Encore with the Disc with a circle. Create a 4:3 rectangle w/ stroke set to ~3px. (can also be 16:9, if that is the format of ones Project), and then dupe these, as needed. If I have my Menus already, Ill Import the flattened PSD from PS and Place into the appropriate rectangles. Below each of these, I list the Buttons (using Myleniums suggestion elsewhere, to re-name the Buttons). If I have the Menus already, I can show the link from the actual Button on those Menus). I usually place the Disc circle and the rectangles on a separate Layer, and then add my link-lines on a Layer below. Each Chapter, or Timeline gets its own Layer for easy manipulation, and Ive gone so far as to Capture (usually in PP2 a representative Poster Frame [Export Still Frame] to be used in the Chapter, etc. rectangles for the Button links. Ive been printing out these AI flowcharts for client approval and even added a sign off graphic that they are required to sign and date, before additional work commences. They also get a finalized AI printout, so they can follow all navigation. I then add arrowheads to the link lines, usually on the same Layer as the link lines.
The beauty of this is that much of the layout can be used for other Projects. If I do not have the Menus created yet, Ill just do a text name for each Menu, adding to that the image, when I get that far. With AI, I have saved a bunch of $ on erasers, my clients have a perfect vehicle to see the navigation, and I get a signed/dated copy for the files, in case there are any questions later. These also can be Exported to PDF for e-mailing. Ive Save(ed)_As several versions of the base AI file, for future use. After the initial Document setup, its very easy to adapt the layout for each Project.
Programs used:
Adobe Encore
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Premiere Pro
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Answer 1

I could not agree more.
Not only that, but I would also
i strongly
recommend that all authors follow this advice. One of (to my mind, anyway) the main ingredients for a successful authoring experience - and not just with Encore, but with all applications - is proper planning. Once you have a map of your layout, it's easy to keep track of not only where everything
i needs
to go, but also whether or not you have made that link yet as well.
The same thing applies to asset management too.
If you follow these rules below, things will be a lot easier for you - and therefore more profitable as well.
1 - Don't import a single asset until your client has signed off on them.
2 - Try, wherever possible, to encode your assets
i outside
of Encore - this will allow you to send the encoded files to your client for sign-off as they will know exactly what the final quality will be.
3 - Make your client sign off on the flowchart too. This will prevent "Feature Creep", as when they (inevitably) call up & say "Can you just add....." you can turn around & say "Yes, but it will cost extra, as we will now have to rework the flowchart, and quite possibly re-encode all the assets again to make it all fit"