Removing Background from Images/clipart

[Mike Koewler]

I'm not a great fan of promoting non-MS products in an MS NG, but I
would suggest you take a look at Serif WebPlus. Not only is it similar
to Pub so there there is not a steep learning curve, it offers built in
support for E-commerce. It is also about 1/5 the price of Web
Expressions and has a great support forum. And a great adjunct to WP (or
any web page design product) is OS Commerce, a shopping cart that offers
both categories and products (it's free) and integrates well with
whatever payment gateway you wish to use.

One user is in the process of setting up a site for a produce producer
and wholesaler. OS Commerce allows you to show pictures, a description
as well as prices of products. Using WP, you can put the shopping cart
in an iframe so it retains the overall look of your site.

One thing I have found is that I can import current Pub sites into WP or
open the Pub file and cut and paste text, images, etc., so it isn't a
giant step backward requiring a complete rebuild of a site.

If you want to e-mail me with questions, I'll be happy to respond. And
no, I do not have stock in Serif or work for the company.

Mike

 

[Mike Koewler]

David,

Go ahead, but keep in mind that I really don't post here to promote WP.
I don't know if Expressions has a wizard to set up E-commerce but for a
beginner, WP's wizard makes it easy to sell products. OS Commerce is
more like a catalog program where one can add images of the product(s)
and I think can be integrated with a DB to keep track of inventory.
Since I only sell Classified ads and subscriptions, I have not had to
worry about inventory!

If you want to add it, people can visit Serif (www.serif.com) and
download a free copy of an old version of WP, register it, then be
eligible for an upgrade to the newest version. Currently, I think the
price is $55 or so.

Mike

 

[unofornaio]

I know this issue is somewhere on this forum but its 1am and I cannot find it
for the life of me.
Here is my problem I created a site in pub2003 decided to redo it in 2000
after much reading here. the problem is the images that I have saves as gif.
in a file on my desktop when inserted into 2000 are not right. for example I
have my company logo that is saved as a gif. image when I put it into 2003 it
is on as transparent background as it should be when I put it in 2000 (same
file) the box shows up but no image is contained in it.
Then some images saved as gif. have NO background and some DO when I insert
them and they are all saved with NO background. Can someone explain whats
going on here?
Also I seem to collect a lot of images clip art and photos with background I
don't want, I usually like to remove this can someone make a recommend a
program that is good for this kind of stuff and perhaps one that is good for
editing the image its self.
Thanks for helping

 

[DavidF]

In my long winded reply to you yesterday, among other things, I pointed out
one big difference between Pub 2000 and 2003 that is probably applicable
here:

"One of the differences in the way Pub 2000 and 2003 can be seen in your
welcome page, or "splash page". You have constructed the page by overlapping
a text box with a fancy border with at least two images. You can layer
images and text like this in 2003, but Pub 2000 will convert all those
objects into one image. You can see this for yourself by opening a blank web
page in Pub 2000 and opening your publication in 2003. Then File > Select
All > Copy. Move to your Pub 2000 page and paste. Do a web page preview in
both and see if you can see the difference."

This meant among other things that the way you overlapped images and text
boxes on the splash page would result in one big, new gif. In the process of
combining all those elements, you may also loose transparency. If you are
going to use Pub 2000, you will have to change your designs
accordingly....or stay with 2003.

If you are wanting a freebie image editor, http://irfanview.com is a pretty
good one. It has the capability of creating transparent gif images. If you
buy one, I like Adobe Photoshop Elements for the money.

Another difference between 2000 and 2003...they use different clipart, which
may also affect your design approach. Also don't forget that you are limited
to ten pages if you want to use the navbar wizard in Pub 2000. Pub 2003 does
not have this limitation.

As you try 2000 and 2003, be sure to save backup files of each version. You
cannot open 2003 files in 2000, and opening 2000 files in 2003 can result in
some unpredictable results.

Welcome to the "fun" of web design. Some things work the way you want...some
don't. That is another reason to test your work as you go with both IE and
FF.

DavidF

 

[unofornaio]

Thanks again David, your continued help is encouraging..what really scared me
into at least trying to do it in 2000 was the code difference. Being that
this is hopefully going to be a website that is going to "work" for me
meaning, be appealing to search engine robots and the whole list of other
s%$# I have to worry about it doing as far as behind the scenes I figured I
should consider it. I'm clearly no expert but seeing the difference in code
on the 2 pages (2000vs2003)was a huge motivator. I don't know maybe I should
just break down and buy a program...
Here is the thing, I'm a wholesaler and for the most part the sites primary
function is going to be a visual product showcase with the ability to order
from. These are specialized cookies that a new customer is not going to type
in the name of. Most of the direct customer sales are going to come from
links from other sites, gift shoppes, wedding planners etc. so I don't know
just how much importance I should put on the code issue. All I know is I was
up till 2:30am and its now 7am and I do NOT want to work on it today. I
think I started this reply with a question in mind but I have no idea what
that is now sorry. I will try your suggestions

 

[DavidF]

Pub 2000 certainly writes simpler code than 2003, but the weight of the code
is not my biggest concern. If you were using a free webhost with only a
small amount of space, then the weight of the code would be more
significant. How fast a site loads, whether it loads and looks good and
works well in browsers other than IE, how good the images are, and how the
code functions are more important in my mind.

Given the commercial goals for your site, I think you would be better off
moving to better software. You can probably accomplish what you want with
Publisher, but managing the site will be challenging. You are talking about
dynamic content on your site. Your product selection will vary. The images
will be critical as they need to elicit a "mouth watering" effect. And more
importantly, you want the functionality of letting people order from it. I
have seen Publisher sites that incorporate PayPal, but it seems to me that
as a wholesaler you need something more dynamic than what you can get from
Publisher. Publisher is best used for static sites. You probably need to
incorporate customer databases for record keeping but also to facilitate the
whole process from order to shipping and customer service. You probably need
some server side functionality.

Given your rather ambitious goals for your site, I think moving to Web
Expression might be a good choice. However, before you do that I think you
need to think more about exactly what you want your site to do. Once you
have a more specific business plan in mind, you can then think about what
functionality you may need. And then, you can choose the software that
provides that.

I know I have given you a lot of "homework", but I think you will save a lot
of frustration if you take a step back and plan your site and everything you
want it to do. Here is a link to a series of articles about building your
site from scratch. http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/

I am not saying that you should follow all the recommendations you will find
here, as I doubt that you will ever hand code your site. However, I think
the sections on the Basics, Design Process, Business, Goal-oriented design,
etc, etc, offer a lot of good information and perspective. I think taking
the time to read some or most of this site will help you redefine your
goals, the steps you need to take and the functionality you will need from
your site. It may lead you back to Publisher, on to Web Expression, or
delegating the whole project to a professional web designer. It may be that
your time will be better spent managing the business. Even if you delegate
the actual site production, you will benefit from reading this, and then
knowing more exactly what you want. Also after you have better defined
exactly what you want your site to do, perhaps you should post a rather
specific description of all the functionality you require, in the Web
Expression newsgroup, and ask whether Web Expression is the best software
for the job. microsoft.public.expression.webdesigner

I hope this helps.

DavidF

 

[DavidF]

Mike,

Thanks. Given the needs of the OP, I think suggesting WebPlus is a good
idea. It may be a much better choice than web expression for him.

I think I will archive your post so I can quote you in the future if that is
ok.

DavidF