| Button Wizard | Once you have created a button using the Button Wizard, you might want to
exert more control over the look of the button than the Button Wizard allows. You can use the Button Wizard to make preliminary decisions about the look of your buttons, then use other features of Image Composer to modify your buttons. |
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| Edit Your Buttons | To gain full control over a button created by the Button
Wizard, double click on the button to bring up the Button
Editor. Choose the Label and Image tab Erase the label in the Label text box. Click on OK. A Microsoft Image Composer Hint box will appear to warn you that you will no longer be able to alter the button with the Button Editor. Click on OK. You will be returned to the composition space where you button will now be free of text. |
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| HINT: Before you start to
edit a blank button, make several copies of the button. To copy a sprite, click on the sprite to select it. Then press Control + D to make a copy. |
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| Add Text | To add your own text label to a button, click on the Text Tool button on
the Toolbox. The Text dialog box will appear. |
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| From here you can choose the font, style, and size of the label as well as
its color and opacity (i.e., how dark or light the color is). Your cursor will turn into the +A symbol. Click and the symbol will turn into a white area bounded by a broken line.. The cursor will be inside the white area.. |
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| Type your text in the area, then click away from it. Your text now
appears as a sprite on the composition space. Hint: If the area is not large enough to contain your text, use the little white boxes on the edges of the broken line to make the area long and wide enough for your text. |
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| Now move the text sprite onto your button. Place the text sprite exactly
where you want it to appear on the button. Select both the button sprite and the text sprite. Hint: Select more than one sprite by clicking on the first sprite, holding down the Shift key, and clicking on the second sprite. |
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| Choose Arrange, Group from the main menu
to stick the two sprites on top of each other. To split the sprite into its two original component sprites, select the sprite and choose Arrange, Ungroup from the main menu. To permanently meld the sprites, choose Arrange, Flatten Selection. Image Composer will warn you that you will not be able to unflatten the selection unless you choose Edit, Undo Flatten Selection before you perform another action. |
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| Once you have grouped or flattened the combination of the text sprite and
the button sprite, you can save your creation as a single image file. To save a grouped or flattened sprite, choose File, Save Selection As from the main menu. The Saves the current selection dialog box appears. |
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| In the Save in box, navigate to the drive and folder
where you want to save the image. Type in a file name. Choose a file format from the Save as type dropdown box. Remember: if you will be using this image in a web page, save it in either CompuServe GIF (*.gif) or JPEG (*.jpg) format. |
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| Important: Be sure to use the Save selection as command. Otherwise you will save the entire contents of the composition space in a single graphic file. | ||
| Now you can insert the graphic file on your web page and create a hyperlink on it. | ||
