Text/slideshows/menus--help please!

Question

Hello. I'm sorry if this turns out to be a little longwinded question, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and need to get a better understanding of some things before I can finish this project.
I am editing a video and authoring a DVD for a non-profit group, and after each segment, they want a section where text information comes up on the screen, and then pauses until the user selects the next or previous frame. I am trying to figure out the best way to do this, that will allow for the most flexibility and simplicity. I originally started out making the graphics in Photoshop and then saving each layer as a TIFF and importing these into a slideshow. The main problem with this was that the clients wanted little buttons saying next, previous, etc. and I don't know if this is possible in a slideshow. Also, I can just imagine a couple weeks down the line they will want to change the text on some of the slides and I will get confused trying to go back into Photoshop and alter it and hope that it refreshes in DVDSP.
My next thought was perhaps there is a way to create "slides" by using menus but I'm not sure if this is a viable option either because it doesn't seem like you can control the text formatting in menus very much. To enter text on a menu do you have to create a button or drop zone? I can't seem to figure out a way to create a bounding box so that the text wraps inside--everything seems to just extend to the borders of the frame. Am I barking up the wrong tree here?
I guess ideally what I'm looking for is a simple solution to this where I can copy and paste the "slide" text and apply a style to each frame or menu so that everything looks consistent. Also, it would be nice if there would be a way to change this style so that it applies to every slide in the project (I'm coming from a web design background here and thinking of Cascading Style Sheets).
Also, I bought a DVDSP book and it suggested creating graphics at the dimension of 720 x 534 and then letting DVDSP stretch them as it imports. Any thoughts on this? Is this the best way to get good image quality?
Okay, I humbly ask for any tips or assistance you can offer and thank you kindly in advance.
Warmest regards,
Chris

Answer 1

Howdy
Just checking thru the specs - there is a limit to the number of tracks you can use 99, but as far as menus are concerned the only limit that might apply is the numbver of VOBs which is up around 3200. If you've got more menus than that your viewers will be crossed eyed anyway so you can probably just bluff your way thru it!
Layered menus - AFAIK the way the layered menu works is you import your layered PS file, each layer representing each different button's highlight and activation state. So if you wanted to have say 3 buttons on a page and when you highlight each button you fill an area of the page with say text describing what that button does - these layers can overlap because you're only one highligh will appear at a time. In reality DVDSP is generating separate menus for each of these highlights and creating automatic menu jumps, this is why you cant have motion video or audio under a layered menu, because there is no way for it to keep in sync as the button states jump from menu to menu. My personal feeling is as you need to create all the graphics anyway you may as well do it page by page and know where each link is going, especially in a long detailed project. If you wind up in a muddle with 100 layered menus you might as well start again.
Hope that helps some - probably not the answer you wanted though.
Cheers
B