Week 5: Introduction to Encore

Today we used a programme called Encore and within this programme I will be creating my DVD Menu, as I had never used this programme before it was very interesting for me to learn about this programme and I have learnt the basics for Encore and I also got the chance to use this programme to explore the features it include.

• Some new skills in which I learnt today include how to create a new project and to direct the project to a certain folder within my documents (today we used a hard drive in which we are saving all our Encore work to).
• I learnt how links are made to buttons within a DVD Menu and I also linked a button and clip together, therefore the clip played.
• I learnt some shortcuts for within using Encore, these shortcuts include saving projects the shortcut by the keyboard is Ctrl + S, this will help me in the future within projects, so as I am working on a project I am able to easily save my projects as I am working on them. Another shortcut was the shortcut of Ctrl+Alt+Space Bar, this lets you view the project so far, for example a video may play if this was the product you were creating. There is also a shortcut for importing files, you can simply right click on the left hand side of the screen where the projects are listed and click down to 'import as' and you can simply open a file from that point.
• Another tool within Encore is the tool for you to be able to check the progress of your project and to see which parts of the project are finalised and which are still in the works.
• When you import a file such as a video or menu into Encore, you can have the option in how you would like this file to appear on the screen, and the best way for DVD Menus is for the file to be in a timeline. You can simply click on this option and then when the file opens it will appear with a timeline for you to see the progress.

In practicing in Encore today it has helped me in understanding the software and programme which I will be using to create my DVD Menu and has helped me understand how to use the programme, so when I start my DVD Menu I now know some of the basics to help in creating the DVD Menu.