Make sure you have a latest version of Reel Project. The installation file can be found in download page.
Download assets for this tutorial here. Extract it to a folder.

Specifying Template Options

Open Template Designer. You will see a blank template containing Menu and Title Opener page.
Select File > Properties menu to open Template Properties window. Leave Video Standard as PAL and Video Aspect Ratio as Fullscreen (4:3). Click on Menu Background box and select black color. Do the same thing for Title Opener Background. Click OK.
Check "Don't accept user's background" checkbox. That's because in our example, we want to ignore user supplied background image.

Creating Text Object

Click on "Add variable text object" button . Click on menu design area, hold the mouse and move it to form a rectangular area. Release the mouse. Now you have a "variable text" object. This object will be filled automatically by the program from the DVD title information.
Click on the text object we created. Press F2 to view Object Properties. In Text Properties and Shadow sections, we can specify the appearance of the object. Fill it with these values:

Content: MainTitle1
FontName: Arial Black (or anything you like)
FontColor: #0033CC
FontSize: 24
HorzAlign: Center
VertAlign: Middle

ShowShadow: (Checked)
ShadowColor: White
ShadowTrans: 0.7
Create another variable text object. Set these values on Properties window:

Content: MainTitle2
FontName: Arial (or anything you like)
FontColor: White
FontSize: 14
HorzAlign: Center
VertAlign: Middle
Now save your template. Do it periodically by pressing Ctrl+S.

Creating Image Object

Click on "Add image object" button . Click on design area, hold the mouse, move it to form rectangular area, and then release it.
In Properties window, click on "Bitmap" property. Click on the ellipsis button. A window will appear. Click "Open" button. Point the open dialog to the folder where you extracted assets. Select "jordan.bmp" and click OK. Now click OK again.
On Properties window, uncheck "ShowShadow" option, because we don't need shadow for this image.

Creating Video Preview

There are three ways to create video preview for titles: using "variable image" object , "frame" object or "rectangle button" object .

Frame object will show video preview masked with a bitmap. The transparent area (fuchsia color) of the bitmap will be filled with video preview.

Rectangle Button object will show video preview, and has a rectangle outline that can change its color when user hightlight it. When user select it, the corresponding title will be played.

Variable image only shows the video preview.

You can specify which video title will be displayed by setting TitleNum property. It's 1 based, not 0 based. TitleNum 1 means the first title, TitleNum 2 means the second title, etc.

For this tutorial project, we want to display preview video using "variable image object".

Click on "variable image" button . Click on design area, hold the mouse, create rectangular area, release.
On Properties window, set these values:

Width: 120
Height: 90
TitleNum: 1
Create three more of this object with TitleNum 2, 3 and 4.

Creating Variable Text for Titles

We want to display each title's caption below each video preview box.

Drop a variable text object using same method as earlier. Set these properties:

TitleNum: 1
Content: Title1 (no change)
FontName: Arial (or whatever you like)
FontColor: White
FontSize: 12
OutlineWidth: 0
ShowShadow: (unchecked)
Create three more of this object with TitleNum 2, 3 and 4. You can use copy-paste (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V).

Creating Highlight Button

We want to display a pointer left to the title text, so user know which title is currently highlighted. This can be achieved by placing one button for each title.

The button can contain 3 states: normal, highlighted, selected and disabled. For this tutorial, we use a blank transparent bitmap for normal and disabled state. It means we don't want to display anything on these two states.

For highlighted and selected states, we use a bitmap containing a basket ball image. Bitmaps for DVD button can only have 4 colors (1 for transparent / fuchsia, and 3 for others). Use PhotoShop or other tool to achieve this.

Now, place a title button .
Set BmpNormal and BmpDisabled properties to "ball_normal.bmp". Set BmpHighlight and BmpSelected to "ball_highlight.bmp".
Make three duplicates of this object. Don't forget to set TitleNum to 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Make Next and Previous Page Buttons

Reel Project can make a multipaged menus. So we have to prepare next and previous buttons.

Place a button .
Set "BmpNormal" to "left_normal.bmp". Set "BmpHighlight" and "BmpSelected" to "left_highlight.bmp". Set "BmpDisabled" to "left_right_disabled.bmp".
Set "Action" to "PrevPage".
Place another button on the right side.
Set "BmpNormal" to "right_normal.bmp". Set "BmpHighlight" and "BmpSelected" to "right_highlight.bmp". Set "BmpDisabled" to "left_right_disabled.bmp".
Set "Action" to "NextPage".

Creating Title Opener

Basically creating title opener template is same as the menu template.

Place a "variable image" object . Set TitleNum to 1.
Place an image object . Set Bitmap property to "jordan.bmp". Uncheck ShowShadow property.
Place a "variable text" object , set these properties:

Content: Title1
FontName: Arial Black
FontColor: #0033CC
FontSize: 18
HorzAlign: Right
VertAlign: Middle

ShowShadow: (Checked)
ShadowColor: White
ShadowTrans: 0.7
Place another "variable text" object just below it. Set these properties:

Content: Title2
FontName: Arial (or anything you like)
FontColor: White
FontSize: 14
HorzAlign: Right
VertAlign: Middle

Fill Author Info

When you are done creating template, don't forget to fill author information in Template Properties window that is accessible from File > Properties menu.

Make Template Available

Save your completed file to a RPT file, then put it or copy it to "C:\Program Files\Reel Project\Templates". Your template will be available in Reel Project.

Done. See you in next tutorial!