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message background - Version 2 - here. How to Copy & Paste in the new Scrippy Version 3. Colored Scrollbars for Version 2. Basic
Scrippy tips. So, you'd like to have some colored scroll bars? Hmm, try this tip! Put this right behind
the style portion in the ssc file Don't change anything here but the two color codes. In your Scrippy stationery this goes right in front of the P. Open your stationery and you will see what I mean. You can use your text editor to put this into your html code and it will always be there. OR, you can simply add it in before you hit that little send button. Also, try a smart little program called Cool Web Scrollbars. Download it here! This is the program that I use 100% of the time. The program opens up a small box where you can either choose all of the colors for the scrollbars separately OR you can choose just the base color and let CWS make the code for you. They have also added an eyedropper so choosing the scrollbar color is as easy as pie. Using it after you have chosen your color is very simple. Tell CoolWeb to generate your code and just copy that code and insert it right behind the head of your stationery. Now preview it and look at your new colored scrollbars! I hope that these two tips will help out a little. As I discover new tips I will be sure to put them here immediately! (TOP) Some basic tips need to be discussed. This includes how to save your stationery and ssc files. It is suggested that not long after you begin your new Scrippy stationery, that you save the ssc file. This is simply to keep you from having to redo the entire thing should the program hang, the computer hang or whatever mishap should occur. Go to File and Save As, give the stationery a unique name and save this to your preferred directory. I have a directory expressly for SSC files only. I have one folder that says My SSC and another that says Others SSC, so that I can keep them separate and not accidentally use somebody else's ssc without giving them their due credit! As to saving, Scrippy enables you to simply save the stationery that you have just created as the 'default' Scrippy stationery. However, once you make a second Scrippy stationery the first one will disappear! So, to avoid that, go to File/Save Web page and save the file (it will be an htm or html) in your stationery directory on drive C. Now, should you move the graphics or sound that you used in these stationery, they will no longer show up! To avoid that, you can save your stationery in eml format. When that happens, everything is saved as one big file. In Outlook Express open up your stationery as if you were going to send it to someone. Go to File and Save As, this should open up a small box showing the extension of eml. Give this stationery a unique name and save it to a different directory (mine is called EML). Now anytime you wish to use this particular stationery you can go to that directory and click on the name and up pops the stationery, just waiting for your input! When you go to save your stationery as an eml, if you are using a business card in order to avoid ads at the Yahoo Groups, I would suggest deleting this. It seems to be impossible to do after it is saved as an eml, I am not 100% sure but I seem to recall that is the case. So delete the business card before you save it as an eml. You can always add it in later I believe. (TOP) When you are working with kaleidoscopes and you want them to merge in the middle, make a duplicate of the image and then mirror it. So you have one left and one right image. When it comes together in the middle it will merge nicely into one image. Always use a gif for your kaleidoscope image. Some jpg images do make nice kaleidoscopes but a background won't show through it! (TOP) Please try to keep in mind while you are creating a stationery, that the main purpose for it is to use it as an email. If you use a background that is very busy, can your recipient read what you are taking the time to write? Try viewing it before you push that send button and check it. I do not recommend using a busy background under your message area at any time. Now if you absolutely insist on doing this, try adding a plain color background over it and set the transparency to around 40%. This will mute that background to make your message more readable. You can play with this transparency amount until it looks muted enough for your message and you can try different colors, it doesn't have to be white! I also recommend that you consider your main image, is it being overpowered by your background? If the background is of more importance than your main image, consider deleting the main image and add a message area with only a textured background so your message will show up. You could then insert your main image there, although sometimes it might need to be reduced to prevent the message area from being overpowered also. (TOP) So sue me! I hate to see a stationery ruined by copyright notices all over it. You have taken quite some time to develop your stationery right? You naturally want to show it off to your friends, family and others. If you are very concerned about image theft, there is a watermark you can put on all of your graphics. This is invisible and is traceable if you register with the Watermark people. This information is readily available via Paintshop Pro. Nobody will even know it's there but you. Yes, they do have a way to trace your images and if you then find someone who has used your image without your permission there are legal steps that can be taken. You could, for instance, write to the web provider if your image is on a web page, and demand it be closed until the offending image is removed. Please don't ask that the entire thing be deleted. Although you might be angry, web sites do take a lot of time and often people who might be using someone else's graphics just haven't been using the net long enough to understand netiquette. You could also put a clear copyright notice on your images. There are several places throughout the web which offer instructions on doing this. It is very easy. By using either of these methods your images are as safe as they can be without destroying the look of your stationery. My suggestion is to just share the images. Then you will no longer have to worry about someone stealing your work. After all, where do all of these main images we use come from? We surely didn't make them ourselves did we? The way I look at backgrounds is that I am lucky to be able to make a nice one, sometimes it's by accident and other times by trial and effort and if anyone wants to use any I have made it gives me a chuckle! (TOP) Containers are NOT as hard as they appear. When you first begin using Scrippy and have not used them, they kind of seem like Greek. But the explanation for them is quite simple. If you use PSP? look at these as layers. Make a new Scrippy, put in a colored background and then insert a container. Let the defaults stand. Now insert a frame and let those defaults stand. Preview your Scrippy. See? You have a box now in the middle of your screen don't you? If you take out the frame the box is invisible, but it IS still there! You can put containers anywhere you want and stick anything in there that you want. Make them large, small, whatever. Play around with them and experiment. They are a lot of fun because you can make some really amazing stationery with them! These are movable by dragging them with your mouse. You can put containers within containers and they are all sizeable. (TOP) Frames are pretty easy too. Try all of the different styles so you can see what they all look like and try different ones in your stationery. Most likely you will find there is one that you like better than the others. There is even an invisible frame! Although I haven't yet discovered any real use for the invisible kind, lol I'm sure it's something I have just not gotten around to yet. Some scrolls are used in transitions and such, they don't have to move either, you can set them to not scroll. One scroll can go on top of another and something to keep in mind is that the last thing you put on your Scrippy will be on TOP of everything else, like a top layer. You can move all of these things around simply by grabbing them with your mouse and moving them. (TOP) Margins are another way of manipulating your images. Say you inserted a container and a frame and now you want to insert an image. You might set this to the top. Now viewing it you see that your framed image has part of the frame not showing up. How big is that? Move it down from the top an amount that is equal to your frame itself. If your frame is 10 pixels, move the image down 10 pixels. Now that will clear your frame at the top. In your message areas the margins can be a big help. If you do not want to use a framed container for your message area you could just set the message area by itself, not under any containers and then you will need to set the top margin to be bigger than the length of your image. If your image were 350x350, then you might set your top message margin at 375 and see how that looks. But as you have moved your image down 10 pixels, 385 will be better. By doing your message area this way the bottom portion of your stationery will just keep on going. A word of caution. If you have anything in your stationery set to top, and something else NOT set to top, this will often cause your images to be dragged down by every line of text. A good idea is if you are going to set something to the top, set EVERYTHING to the top. Once you try a stationery and do this you will see exactly what is meant. Well that is all I can think of right now, but I am sure something else may come to mind later and it will be added as it is thought of. The most important thing is just to have fun with it, try new things, try old things :-) and keep in mind that everything you create is a step forward! If you hate something you have made, put it aside or rework it and change it until it is something you do like :) but even those we hate makes us one more stat closer to doing heavenly stationery that we will love! (TOP)
Copyright Ozmee 2001 |
