If the area of a cell or outside of a table contains an image fill, the area can not be filled with color until the fill image is removed.  To do this, click in the area you want to modify, go to the 'Choose theme' step, then use the drop menu next to the 'Image fill' button and select 'Remove background image'.  You can then use 'Color fill'.

If the table has a frame or a side bar, changing the size of the table manually alters the cell dimensions often causing the cells containing the frame and/or bar images to become distorted. Examples of these template types include Affluent and All Business from the Moods theme folder.  In a template containing a table within a table, such as Cheery from the same folder, both tables can be individually modified by clicking on the table's outside edge and resizing the selected table using the white boxes that appear.

In this case, a color or a background image is assigned to the entire table and not just an individual cell. You may remove (or assign) colors and images to the entire table by selecting the outer border of the table then 'Remove color' or 'Remove background image'.  Additionally, you may override the default color or background of the table by clicking inside an individual cell and assigning a new color or background image.

At minimum, a web page must contain the same number of user images as image placeholders found in its original template design.  If a template starts out with two image place holders, it must have at least two user images or one of the image placeholder will remain in place.  If image placeholders alternate within a template and the original number of placeholders are filled with user images, than the remaining image placeholder can be deleted.

There are three approaches you may take to use just one image in a template.

Approach one: Open any PixMatrix template, delete the outer most table containing placeholder images, then add your images and text.  To delete a table, click on table edge and when the white resizing boxes appear on the sides press the 'Delete' key on your keyboard.

Approach two: Add your single image, then add clipart images via the 'Add images" dialog to replace the remaining placeholders.  Be aware that these clipart images will automatically be converted to JPEG images and will be compressed at 50% quality.  The conversion to JPEG will cause PNG clipart images to lose any transparency they might have.  You may want to increase the image quality by decreasing the compression of the clipart via the 'Modify images' dialog.

Approach three: Download and insert this 1x1 pixel jpeg image into the second placeholder position. A 1 pixel image is too small to be noticeable.

Can I use GIFs with PixMatrix?

At this time, only JPEG, BMP, and PNG file formats for graphic images are used with PixMatrix. Here is a great website with free png clipart: http://pngart.com

The answer will depends upon how much web space your ISP is providing.  For instance, Earthlink provides 10 MB of free web space per e-mail address with a maximum of eight free e-mail addresses.  If your images are each 35k in size, you will be able to post over 2,000 pictures.  AOL provides 2 MB of web space per screen name with a maximum of five screen names. This equates to approximately 200 35k images.  When you run out of web space you will need to use the PixMatrix "Manage your web space" buttons to log on and remove older web pages and folders to free space.

If you find you need more space, you might consider renting web space at web host. We recommend A-plus web hosting, which hosts this web site.

The PixMatrix spell checker does not recognize common spellings such as "colour".  Why?

Correct spelling is determined by the active dictionary set in PixMatrix.  In the case of "colour" you will need to use the British English or Canadian English dictionary.  To change the active dictionary press the down arrow next to the spell check icon, then choose a language from the sub-menu.

How can I insert a shipping calculator into my HTML page?

When you copy HTML code from another web site it is in "text" format. PixMatrix is a WYSIWYG editor (What you see is what you get) so you need convert the HTML code into a WYSIWYG format that PixMatrix recognizes. The following workflow focuses on placing a shipping calculator from http://www.auctionsupplies.com/ inside a Pixmatrix page, but the workflow is generic and should work for other types of free sample HTML available on the web.

1)   Open up Notepad

2)   Paste these lines into it

 

  <HTML> <BODY>

  <!-- Paste calculator code after this line -->

 

  </HTML> </BODY>

 

3)   Now, copy the calculator code from www.auctionsupplies.com and paste it after the "Paste Calculator..." line in notepad.

4)   In notepad save this file as Calc.htm in say, your documents folder.

5)   Go to your documents folder and double click on the calc.htm file

6)   Now you should be viewing it in Internet Explorer... If you are viewing it in notepad, then notepad has appending a .txt to the end of the filename and you need to rename it. e.g. calc.htm.txt, which it sometimes does for some awful reason.

7)   Click in the Internet Explorer window and press ctrl+a (this selects everything on the page), then press ctrl+c to copy it.

8)  Swap over to PixMatrix and click where you want to put the calculator, then press ctrl+v to paste

9)  That's it. These calculators are great because you only have to generate them once, then you can re-use them by typing in new weight values. To see what I mean, toggle between edit and preview mode in PixMatrix. See how the two fields disappear when you go into preview mode? It is suppose to do that... So you can double click these text boxes in PixMatrix and type in new weight values for different auctions and the values will be unchangeable for anyone viewing the page.

How do I create bulleted text?

1)  First you have to pick a bullet image. It should be a png file. There are a collection of bullet image in the PixMatrix clipart collection, in addition, here is a really fun web site that has 50,000 free png images, including lots of bullets. When you see an image you like in their gallery right click on it
and choose "save as" to save it to your computer. http://www.pngart.com

2)  Now, you will want to go into the Change Text step of PixMatrix. Type your text for each bullet and hit return when you are done with each section. Your bullet paragraphs will seem far apart, don't worry, we will
fix that. Once you have each bullet section, drag select the text and press the Create List button. (let your mouse pause over the PixMatrix toolbar buttons to see the tool tip popup windows. The list button is to the left of the "decrease indent" button.

3)  You will probably want to "align left" the text, then use the indent buttons to move it to where you want it on the page.

4)  You can now insert the clipart in front of each bullet section. Switch to the Choose Theme step and click in front of each paragraph, then press the clipart button. Once I insert a bullet I usually hit the space bar after it to give a little space between the bullet and text.

And that's how you can create bulleted text with really cool graphics. Please note that there are also many fun clipart images at http://www.pngart.com that you may use with PixMatrix as backgrounds or clipart.

What is ‘file transfer protocol’ or ‘FTP’?

FTP is the standard mechanism for exchanging files between computers and servers over the Internet.

You may create a new bookmark using the wizard by pressing the down arrow next to 'Quick Connect' or 'Connect' in the 'Upload to web' step, then pressing the 'Create new' button in the window that appears and selecting 'Create bookmark with help wizard'.

What is a session log and why is it important?

A session log displays the text behind a FTP transaction.  It can be used to determine transaction details such as how much free web space you have available or why a transaction failed.

You may use a variety of mechanisms to remove or retrieve files from your web space including those created with PixMatrix.  For instance, WS_FTP is a popular shareware program for managing web space.  However, if you want to use the functionality in the "Use page" step of PixMatrix you MUST use PixMatrix to transfer web pages to your web space.

Under certain circumstances, (e.g., heavy FTP server traffic) FTP requests may "time out" before they are completed.  Try double clicking on the problem icon or folder in the left hand panel of your 'Web space' window.  This will refresh the problem area.

PixMatrix enforces certain naming conventions on file and path names to ensure 100% compatibility with the Internet.  PixMatrix will replace most punctuation characters and spaces in file names with underscores.

What are the uses of pages created with PixMatrix?

There are a variety of uses for web pages created with PixMatrix including personalized web sites, online photo galleries, and showcasing samples of items for sale.  They can be used to document trips—both professional and personal—and have numerous educational applications.  PixMatrix can assist you most anytime you want to share online images with others.