Hi,

Here is another way, use takes. When your Intro is done, select all of the elements of your intro and then click on Group (the chain) or shortcut G. Make sure that you are in single object mouse mode (shortcut 6). Make sure that you are on the Import tab of the Media pool and in a folder where you want to keep your intros/outros. Drag the newly grouped onto the area where the files are normally present. This will create a file with the extension .TK2. Right-click on it and rename it to what you want (but keep the extension as .TK2). You will notice that it disappeared from the timeline. You can do an undo and it will reappear, or to see how it works, just drag the new intro (take) that you made, onto the timeline. Everything will be there, including any effects that you put on the objects that make up the take. You can open a new project and drag your take onto the timeline. If it includes a title, double-click on the title object of the group and it will open the title editor. You can always ungroup the take if you want to modify it specially for a particular project, and create a new take if you want (with a new name).

Remember that the take is composed of objects, like videos and photos, that have to remain available on your computer and at the same location. Making a take does not create a new video file as per the method indicated by John EB.

Projects and movies are defined in the manual which you should read. Also take a look at my tutorial on Getting Started in MEP under the Tutorials tab and .

Projects are what you are doing with MEP and contain everything, including Movies, objects, titles, effects, etc. A project can have multiple Movies, each one with a different tab. The main use of Movies is to be able to create a DVD with different themes, each one having chapters (if desired).

You can export a movie from a project and import it into another project. An exported movie is just one single tab from a project, nothing more, and you can bring multiple exported movies into a new, or existing project. If you export a movie from a project, a file (.MVD) is created for it, but it is still also in the project from which it was exported, and there is no link between the two. Thus, if you export Movie X from Project A and then continue to modify Movie X within Project A, it will be different from Movie X that you exported. If you open Project B and import Movie X, it will not be the same as the one in Project A. There is no link. The same with Movie X inside of Project B, there is no link back to Movie X.

If you modify and re-export Movie X from Project A and overwrite the previously exported file called Movie X, you have a new file. If you now open Project B and look at Movie X, it will be the same as it was when you last saved Project B; Movie X in Project B does not get updated or changed by any of this - it is totally independent.

Just so that you know, a project file (.MVP) (and a movie file .MVD) is simply a set of instructions used by MEP to put everything on the timeline when you open the project (or the Movie within a project). The project file does not contain any videos or photos - only instructions, so any videos or photos "imported" into MEP have to remain on your computer at the same location as they were when you imported them into the project. Some people think that since they "imported" a video or photo into MEP, they can now delete the original file. This is wrong and MEP will tell you that it can't find the file - the file has to stay where it was, or someone is going to be very unhappy.

Enjoy!

John