Hello all,

Super newbie here--just playing around with the program for the next two weeks to see if it's something we'll switch to.

First problem: So far I have brought in two graphics with transparent backgrounds (.png files). They look normal when in editing mode but they both have a light blue background when I view the module. I looked at the properties tried a few things, but nothing seems to help. What's going on? (I have used these in authorware and they work fine)

Second question: Is it possible to bring in buttons you have created yourself to replace the default buttons? i.e. the "start module" button and the forward and backward arrows.

Thanks for your help so far. I imagine these won't be the last of the dumb questions for awhile!

UPDATE:

Happy Friday everyone.

I've been playing around again this morning and discovered that I only seem to have the .png problem on the title slide. The transparencey seems to be working fine on the regular slides. Anyone else experience this?

Still wondering about making my own buttons, bringing them in and setting actions for them. Is this possible?

Hi, Noelle

Yes, transparent PNG background is a browser issue (already fixed in some browsers though) and CourseLab run-time has workaround for this issue. But at the moment when the title slide is loaded CourseLab run-time is not fully active yet, therefore the workaround does not work yet. So just avoid using PNG on the title slide.

Buttons, yep you can do that.
Easiest is to drop in a standard courselab button and then go into it's properties where you can chnage the normal, onselect, mouse over images to your own. You can also change the actions associated with the button.
I always use pngs and have done for quite a while, I do rather like the jpeg2000 format as it does have some very cool functionality. I have a module with 100 base images and a few overlays on each, all pngs with transparency which work fine.

Thanks, Nick.

I'll try out the buttons this afternoon. So far no more transparency problems--just the one I had in the title slide. I can live with it if that's the only problem I have--so far I think this program is incredible!

If you want to make something very custom them first make up your button graphics in various states using a paint package. Call them something meaningful for example
button1_normal
button1_hover
button1_select
Add the first to the page using insert a picture which puts your normal state button on the page.
Now using the right click drop down on the graphic change the identity to match the image so you can keep a track on things.
Now add some actions to the normal button:
#1 onmouseover hide button1_normal and show button1_hover (shows the mouse over button state)
#2 onmouseout show button1_normal and hide button1_hover (restores to normal when mouse moves away)
#3 onclick show button1_select and hide button1_hover (remember you can only click when over the button so #1 has already happened)
Now you add the what to do when clicked action.

There you go a three state custom button. If you use this lots make a template page with a default button so you can drag and drop it to your pages and then modify the images to whatever you're using at the time.
[:D]

Hi Noelle Tangredi, any luck with the pngs? I keep getting the same thing (a light blue background.

The only solution I've found is to import the png file into flash and then import the flash file into courselab, the file size is smaller also.

Hi All.. What spec are the png images?
512, 256,128,64, etc colours?
How are you making them (photoshop, fireworks etc)
What optimisations are you applying?
There are far too many variables to experiment and see if they can be made to work easily without a little more info.

I should have added above:

Regarding the transparent .png's

I have tried everything I can think of, used my own graphics, used professional graphics, changed settings... they all come out with the same result. A light blue blackground where it should be transparent.

Transparent .gif's work, but I refuse to use them as the quality of the graphic is poor(jagged edges, incorrect colours, etc).

I hope there is just something I'm missing.

Thanks.