Previewing and Checking Links
Once you have finished linking together the various elements in your DVD design, it’s a good idea to check the navigational flow before you start burning discs. You can use Encore’s built-in Preview function to play through your DVD design, or, even better, you can preview individual sections of the disc before the full design is complete. Beyond your manual preview, Encore also provides powerful Check Project tools to find and report missing or broken links.
Previewing your DVD navigation
Using Encore’s built-in Preview function to check out the flow through your design is easy, but I will warn you: the preview in Encore is not intended to provide an accurate simulation of the timing of the final DVD playback (which can vary between different DVD players anyway). Instead, it provides helpful assistance for following the navigational flow through the design, and also provides an opportunity to check your menu layouts and timeline tracks.
Once you have finished creating your DVD project, you also can check how it plays by building a copy of the final DVD to hard disk, as described in Chapter 8. You can then use a software DVD player application to play through the entire disk, checking both the visual look of the menus and media content (including motion menus), and the navigational flow between menus, buttons, and timelines.
The Project Preview window
To preview the current DVD project (i.e., from the first play), choose File → Preview, or click the ...
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