creating chapters & title pages for slideshow

In an iDVD slideshow every slide is a chapter. Thus a chapter menu couldn't be created since there would have to be one for every slide. Create your title page in what ever text editor you prefer or with Pages (fancier) or with an image editor. For text editors use the landscape orientation and do Print to PDF. Open the pdf file and export as a jpg to use in iDVD.

I use Photoshop to create my 640 x 480 title and filler slides with black background and white text. I believe Seashore, a free image editor, could do it also.

If you absolutely need to have a some chapters create the slideshow in iPhoto and send to iDVD where you can add the chapters at given time intervals. If specific time intervals are needed then iMovie will do the trick. There is a way to add chapter markers to a QT movie file with QT pro but I'm not familiar with it. It involves creating an xml file and importing it into the QT file as I remember.

OT

I don't think it's an iDVD shortcoming. In order to put chapter markers at specific time intervals one would need a single file convering the entire time range so as to put the chapter markers in the header of that file. Can't do that with the iDVD slideshow from stills. It's rather like the 99 slide limit that was imposed in earlier versions of iDVD. That was a DVD standard issue, not an iDVD issue. Apple got around it with iDVD 7.

OT

I am also a long time windows user that switched to Mac because of the simpleness everyone talks about. All I know is I have been making memory slide shows with pictures for several years and I am really missing my Windows Movie Maker. The iDvd doesn't hold a candle to it. It was so easy to use picking transitions, narrations, titles, several music clips to blend into the whole slide show. I have tried to make a slide in iphoto but I don't like the fact that I can't add captions to the pictures. Also if I want more than one song I have to create music through Garage Band first. In Movie Maker it let you do it all right in the program then burn. The transitions for pictures in iDvd is ridiculous. The only thing that I think is cool from iDvd is the themes, thats the only thing that is better when you compare the two programs. I am wondering if I should just buy Windows for mac so I can run Movie Maker but what a difficult process. This is mainly what I do on the computer, I am starting to regret not sticking with my pc. Are there any programs for Mac out there that compare to Movie Maker?
Thanks

You can add titles/subtitles to slides in iDVD. Click on the setting's button and select Show Titles and Commnents. The down size is that every slide will show it's title. You can get around this by clearing out the titles in iPhoto with the Batch Change feature. When the iDVD project is done you can revert back to the file names in iPhoto with the same feature.

Don't know what Movie Maker is. Does is create movie files or DVD movies/slideshow? If if a movie file creator try iMovie HD 6 (it's available to those who are running iLife 08).

For adding multiple songs just create a playlist in iTunes and then select and add the playlist from the Media/Audio pane.

Once you learn how to use iDVD's features it won't be so difficult.

If it doesn't fit your need then by all means resurrect your PC.