How to Export Your Project in iMovie for DVD/CD-Rom/Web

To export your movie for viewing outside of iMovie, you need to decide what format you'd like to present it in and what kind of equipment you will have during the viewing.

Export Movie for DVD/iDVD
If you want to export your movie to make a DVD (without chapters), you want to export a high quality QuickTime movie.

1. In iMovie, go to File→Export (or Share, depending on your version of iMovie).

2. Choose QuickTime from the top menu, and Compress movie for: Full Quality.

3. Click Share, and another dialogue box will appear.

4. Choose a title for your exported movie, and a place to save it.

5. Click on Save, and iMovie will start to compress and export your movie. The exported movie will have a .DV file extension after the name.

This may take some time (10-15+ minutes), but will export a large, high quality QuickTime file that you can then master to DVD. Mastering to DVD compresses your video, so you want to start with the best quality image that you can. This is also a great way to back up your project, I strongly recommend copying this QuickTime file to a DVD.

**If you cannot get a mastered DVD to burn in iDVD, burn a DVD of this QuickTime file**

Export Movie for CD-ROM, PowerPoint or Web
If you want to export your movie to a CD, for the web or to import into PowerPoint, you will export a QuickTime file, but not at such a high resolution.

1. Go to File→Export.

2. Choose QuickTime. You will then be given several options. From the dropdown menu, choose the format you wish: Web, CD-ROM, etc. (CD-ROM is a good choice for most purposes -- don't use the Web setting unless your are exporting a clip over 10 minutes for the web).

After a couple of minutes, you'll have a QuickTime file (ending in .mov) that you can then burn to CD, import into PowerPoint or put on the web.