Menu Editor
From Moving Pictures
The Menu Editor allows you to modify the movie categories in the Moving Pictures GUI. By default there are some very common categories listed such as "Recently Added", "Unwatched" or "Genres"; using the Menu Editor you can customize this menu so that you are able to browse your movie collection any way you see fit.
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Accessing the Menu Editor
You can access the menu editor in the Moving Pictures Configuration Screen. Switch to the "GUI Settings" tab and click the "Define Movie Categories" button, displayed to the right.
Please note that Categories must be enabled to edit the menu. If the "Organize movies by category" check box is not checked, the menu system will not be used in the GUI.
Once open the left half of the popup shows the current menu tree while the right half of the popup shows details about the selected menu item.
Moving and Removing Menu Items
Menu items can be moved either by dragging and dropping the menu item or using the arrow buttons on the right side of the menu list.
Via drag and drop, menu items can be moved inside any non-dynamic menu items to create a cascading menu. Please note though that only bottom level menu items will display movies. Menu items that will display a list of movies in the GUI will be depicted with a green arrow icon. Menu items containing additional menus under it are depicted with a folder icon.
A menu item can be removed by selecting it in the menu list and clicking the minus button on the right side of the menu list.
Adding New Menu Items
To add a new menu item click the plus icon to the right of the menu list. Generally a new menu item will be placed under the currently selected menu. Menu items however can not be placed under a Dynamic Menu Item.
A menu item can be placed at the top level of the menu tree, one of the menu items first displayed when entering the plugin, by checking the "Add Menu Item to Top Level" check box.
After a menu item is created, you can of course change it's position in the menu tree by dragging and dropping it or by clicking the arrow buttons on the right of the menu tree.
Dynamic Menu Items
Two types of menu items can be created, a standard menu item or a dynamic menu item. Dynamic menu items are the easiest to create and are automatically managed by Moving Pictures. For a dynamic menu item, you simply select a type of information and the subcategories are automatically created.
For example if you were to create a dynamic menu item based on Genre, new menu items will automatically be created under this new "Genres" menu. You would see nodes like "Action" and "Drama" and if in the future you were to add a comedy to your collection, a new submenu called "Comedy" would automatically be added by Moving Pictures.
Advanced Tip: You can also add a filter to a dynamic menu to restrict the movies listed in the subcategories. For example, you could create a "Genres" dynamic menu and add a filter to only show movies rated 4 or 5 stars. You could then rename this menu item to "Top Movies" and browse the best movies in your collection by genre with ease.
Standard Menu Items
The second type of menu item that can be created is a standard or "empty" menu item. By default this menu item will contain all movies in your collection so if you want to have it display a meaningful subset of your movies you will need to add a filter.
Standard categories are also effective for organization; you can place other menu items under a standard menu item creating a cascading menu tree. If you add a filter to a standard menu item containing other menu items under it, the filter will cascade down and apply to all lower menu items as well.
Adding Filters to Your Menu
For details on how to configure a filter see the article on the Filter_Editor.
Adding a filter to a menu item allows you to restrict what movies will be displayed when you click on the menu item in the GUI. You can add a filter to both standard and dynamic menu items and the filter will apply to all subcategories that exist under the selected menu item.
To apply a filter click the menu item you want to add the filter to and click the "Edit Filter" button on the right. For more details please see the article on the Filter_Editor.
Customizing Artwork and Sorting
It is also possible to add a few personal touches to your menu item via the controls displayed to the right. By default, a random backdrop is used when a menu item is highlighted, selected from the movies included under the menu. You can optionally select a specific backdrop from an existing movie or even use a custom image stored on your computer.
You can also modify the default sort order used when listing movies under a menu item. If you use the default sort order, the sort order selected on the main GUI Settings tab will be honored.