I actually require a black gradient for this? Hope that makes sense?
Wow that seems a complicated way to achieve this.
The method Gary mentions, is the standard way to achieve this with a graphical Web site builder. Any other method will be less straight forward and require css knowledge and editing.

Here's a video showing the Xara way using version 6:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCmgWxgO9A0