Create my own templates or custom buttons

[Susanita]

So, is it possible? I love the drop down menus, but not the buttons. Can I use my own? If so, how? I tried everything!

Thanks,
Susanita

[John Rayner]

Welcome to Talkgraphics. It is possible, but not very easy. You have to create the buttons in another programs and just replace button1.gif with button1.gif (old and new respectively) This was discussed in teh last month, do a quick glance through the other post from this month...

[Susanita]

Thanks, John. I tried that, but it didn't work. I opened the gif files in Photoshop, changed them and then they disappeared from my FrontPage file.

I'll look for the old post anyway.

Thanks,
Susan

[Susanita]

Hey, I got it to work this time. Go figure! Yay!

Thanks,
Susan

[John Rayner]

Refresh will do that sometimes....

[John Rayner]

The graphic portion of the buttons are .wix files which can be created and editied using xara x1. There are 2 other file types .xgt and .xws that are used to make the buttons. The .xws files are text files that can be read in wordpad. The .xgt files are xara's machine files. Tehre is a 3rd file type .wst which is the total list of templates. Without the proper entries in this list, you would still would not see the template in MM.

The most I could suggest, is if you look into the naming conventions used in the files and create buttons (.wix files) based on those. Then email the whole group to xara and see if they can throw in the .xws and .xgt files for you.

You create &frac12 the template and give it to them, and it could be released in the next template pack... Ask Xara, and see what they say on the matter. If enough of us create templates, then they could do a 100 template release once a month... For a very reasonable amount.

[vtol]

hi
I'm not sure if this is what your looking for, maybe this type example is too basic for your needs.

It would only require a good paint program and some experience of transparency, gif converting, plus some graphic design experience, not forgetting to back up everything frequently.

Don't let the above scare you too much, I did this simple example in just a couple minutes, and even tested the button works perfectly, just make sure you do all the adjustments in the MenuMaker before re-designing your button graffics because MenuMaker will copy on top yours since you have to use same names for the GIF files.

Hope this helps in some way...this example simply shows that you can manually change the looks of the filename_b1.gif and filename_b1_over.gif successfully by your self

[John Rayner]

"It would only require a good paint program and some experience of transparency, gif converting, plus some graphic design experience" - vtol

Xara X1 makes it easy... Why do you think I do not use MM very much?

[vtol]

I'm guessing this is another xara product, I seen a xara paint program at thier site, but forget its name(quite expensive) but I didnt realize it would make menus for HTML, thanks for letting me know, does it come with more button pics different from MM?

I'll prolly have to mix mustard sandwiches with dogfood for 11 months to afford Xara X1

[vtol]

ok John, the worlds your fault now !!!
grrrrr
I'm downloading Xara X1 and buying it.
After exploring the features and viewing the preview code, its a must for MenuMaker v1.1 owners. And I'm too poor to be paid to say this, thats what steams me!
But if I cant make enough money to upgrade from mustard sandwiches to bologney, I may as well give it up.
Now I can make my own beautiful custom navagation bars and rap around frames - etc..
Thanks to Xara X1, Awesome