Banner Maker Pro - Frequently Asked Questions

The banners created with Banner Maker Pro are image files (.gif or .jpeg). If you are using a program like MS FrontPage to create your website, you can just add the image to your web page by using the Insert Picture command.

If you are coding your website with straight HTML, you would use the IMG tag to add the banner.

An example of linking an image on YOUR website to point to ANOTHER website looks like this:

The HREF tag points to the location that you want the to refer the banner. The IMG SRC points to the file on your website. You don't need to refer to the your website on the IMG SRC because it is on your website.

An example of linking your image on a DIFFERENT website to point to YOUR website looks like this:

In this example, the HREF tag points to the your website. The IMG SRC points to the image file located on your website. This is the HTML code that another user would use to link to your website.

Note: Images must be copied to your webserver (where your website is located) in order for users on the internet to view them.

If you are having trouble adding the banner to your website, consider using photobucket.com or imageshack.us. Both sites host images for free and are easy to use. We also have instructions for using these two services in the HTML/JavaScript/Web Page section.

What is the difference between Banner Maker Pro and Banner Maker Pro for Flash?

Banner Maker Pro and Banner Maker Pro for Flash both create graphics for web pages, but use different graphics formats. Banner Maker Pro can make web buttons, Banner Maker Pro for Flash cannot. Banner Maker Pro creates gifs and jpegs which are web standard formats. Animated gifs cannot have more than 256 colors, which tend to wash out colors. Banner Maker Pro for Flash does not have a limit for colors and there are more choices for animations. Both programs use the same backgrounds and images. Banner Maker Pro for Flash is found at: www.bannermakerproforflash.com.

"How do I add my own background to the list of backgrounds that appear?"

To add your own backgrounds to the list of backgrounds that appears on the backgrounds page, copy your backgrounds to the backgrounds directory specified in the Options. (The default directory is C:\Program Files\Banner Maker Pro 7\backgrounds.) The new backgrounds will appear in the list after the program has been re-started. The same process can be used to add your own images to the images directory.

"How can I add fonts?"

Banner Maker Pro uses the True-Type fonts that are currently installed on your computer. If you want to add more fonts it's easy to do and there are several web sites devoted to fonts. See our Banner Resources page for details.

"How do I add two lines of text with different fonts?"

To do this, go to the text tab and add one line of text with the font that you desire and move it into place using the arrows. Then, click new text again, and replace the current text that appears in the text box with the text that you want for the second line. You can then change the font and it will only affect the current line. This can be done for as many lines of text that you need. To modify or move the previous lines of text, click on the text that you want to change with your mouse.

"Can I add my own image, digital photo or company logo?"

Yes. Simply go to the Images tab, and click on Add Image. The image can be resized and there are also several types of transparency that can be used to blend the image with the banner.

"How do I add a banner to an email to make an email signature?"

There are 2 ways to do this.

First Way:

1. Create a banner.
2.Setup your email program for HTML, rather than plain text messages.
3. Add your picture, it will be added automatically.

Second Way:

1. Create a banner.
2. Place it on your webserver. It does not have to be on a webpage, it just needs to be on your webserver.
3. Setup your email program for HTML, rather than plain text.
4. Add your picture, but point it to the location on your webserver.

The first way is probably the best method. However, your emails will have an attachment, and therefore be bigger.

The second way will allow your email to load faster, but some email programs block images that are not included with the email.

"I am trying to create a skyscraper banner, but I cannot see the whole banner. How do I fix this?"

Click on the area that says "Preview" and then hold and drag the preview area completely away from the main screen. You will be able to drag it to the side so that you can see the entire banner. The preview area can be set to look something like this:

"How do I create a mouse-over effect?"

Mouse Over Effects – changing the look of a button or graphic when a mouse is placed over the graphic adds a professional look to any website and is simple to do using JavaScript. Within Banner Maker Pro, you can create this code automatically on the Create Mouse-Over feature on the HTML/JavaScript menu. The Create Mouse-Over feature will create the JavaScript code below automatically.

First, you must make two different graphics. The first graphic will be the button that is shown when the web page is first loaded. The second graphic is shown when the mouse moves over the graphic. Common effects include changing the color, changing the text and changing the border of the button. Banner Maker Pro makes it really easy to do this. Create the main button and save it with a name such as home.gif. Then modify the button by changing the text, background, color, or border. Save the new button with a name such as homemouseover.gif.

Then in the HTML code for the web page, add the OnMouseOver and onMouseOut event handlers to the attributes tag.

<A HREF=”home.html”

onMouseOver=”document.images[0].src=’images/homemouseover.gif’;”

onMouseOut=”document.images[0].src=’images/home.gif’;”>

</A>

That’s all there is to it. There is one little gotcha with the mouse overs and that has to do with the order the images are loaded. The image number refers to the order that the images are loaded. In this case, we are dealing with the first image that appears on the page so the document.images[] – is zero. For the next images, it would be 1,2,3 and so on.

"My animation is always the same speed (too fast or too slow), and I can’t seem to change it. How do I fix it?"

The answer is that the animation speed is set for each frame of the animation. The reason that each frame has its own speed is to allow different speeds for each frame. To change the speed, you must change the speed for each frame. Select a gif in the gif list on the Animation page, set the speed, select another gif, and set the speed for that gif. Repeat this procedure until all frames in the animation have the speed selected. Once the speeds have been set, save the animation, then view the animation and make adjustments to the speed as necessary.

"Can Banner Maker Pro handle non-English characters such as Chinese characters?"

Yes. Banner Maker Pro 7 now handles unicode text.

"How do I add an animated gif to a banner?"

To do this, create an animated banner with each one of the frames containing a frame of the animated gif. For example, if an animated gif contains 4 frames, create 4 different banners that each contain one of the frames. To do this, create a banner, and then add the animated image. When you select Add Image, you will be prompted to select a frame from the image. Choose frame number 1 and place it on the form. Next, save this banner as a gif, and then add it to the animation list. Next, keep this same banner, add the next image, and then drag the previous image to the trash. Save it again and add to the animation list. Repeat for all images in the animated gif. Once all images have been saved, go to the animation page and save and view the animation. You can adjust the speed of the animation for each frame, as well as remove individual frames.

"I'm getting a "Color Table Overflow error message" in my transparent animations or colors are bleeding through on my animations. What is happening?"

All of the gifs in your animation are getting condensed into only 256 colors, and some colors are being replaced with inappropriate colors. To fix this, run the gif cruncher on the individual gifs making up the animations and choose (and save) gifs that have fewer colors. This will fix the problem.

My animation is going very slow in Internet Explorer version 5. Why?

Internet Explorer 5 has a minimum animation speed of approximately 1/10th of a second. This will have an effect on fast animations that appear in Internet Explorer. This also affects other browsers. For example, if an animation has a 1 millisecond frame speed, it will be slow in IE, but very fast in Netscape and other browsers.

"My animation is not working when I add it to my web page. It works fine within the program, but when I add it to my web page it doesn't work."

There are several causes to this problem.

Press refresh in your internet browser to make sure the animation hasn't stopped, or that you are not looking at an older image.
Internet Explorer and Zone Alarm have options that disable animations. In IE, go to Tools | Internet Options | Advanced Tab and make sure the option "Play Animations in Web Pages" is checked.
Make sure that you are looking at the correct image. You can accidentally name an image twice - once on the save tab (non-animated) and then once on the animation page.
Products like Norton Internet Security can block ads. If you are using a product like this, make sure that the ad-block feature is disabled.

Can you combine One-Step and Frame-by-Frame animations?

Yes. To do this, create and save a one-step animation. Then go to the Frame by Frame animation page and add the animated gif. You can then add other images to go along with your animation.

I added an image to my banner, but when I saved it as a .gif file, the image looks washed-out.

This can happen because gifs are limited to 256 colors. The process of converting a .jpeg image which can contain millions of colors to a .gif file can cause the image to look bad. To minimize these conversion problems, try these steps:

Use a plain background on the banner.
Crop as much of the image as possible, try to remove any background colors.
Use fewer frames by increasing the step value on the one step animation, if animating the image.
Try using non anti-aliased text (check box on the Text+ tab). Anti-aliased text has shading between the background and letters and this can increase the number of colors.

The characters at the end of sentence are getting cutoff, especially when I use italicized text. How do I fix this?

To fix this, add some blank spaces at the end of the text. This will pad the text so the characters will not get cutoff.

The text is fuzzy, especially if I use smaller font sizes. How do I fix this?

This happens when using anti-aliasing on the text. Anti-aliasing smoothes the text by blending the edges of the text with the background. On large anti-aliased text, this causes the text to have a very smooth appearance. For smaller text, anti-aliasing can cause the text to have a fuzzy appearance. To fix this, un-check the anti-aliasing button on the Text+ tab.

How do I add more than one line of text to an image?

To add more than one line of text, click New Text once to add the first line of text. Once you have placed the text and set the different properties, click New Text again. You can then replace the text and change the properties for the second text. To go back to the first text, click on the text with your mouse.

I've lost my registration code and/or I need to re-download the version that I purchased. How do I do this?

If you have purchased from the website, simply contact us with your name, the email address and the approximate date that the software was purchased. We will send directions on how to re-download the full version.

There is never a cost for this service.

I purchased a previous version and I see version 7 is available. Is there a special upgrade price?

Yes. The upgrade price is half the full price. Simply contact us with your name, the email address and the approximate date that the software was purchased. We will send information on how to purchase Banner Maker Pro at the upgrade price.

I'm trying to Create HTML Code on the Save tab, but every time I preview it in the web browser, I get a red 'X' instead of the image. Why?

When you create the HTML code, it assumes that the website exists, and that the file has already been copied to the website when you attempt to preview it in the web browser. If it doesn't exist on the website, you will see a red 'x' instead of the image.

"Can I have more than one banner rotator on a page. If so, how do I do this?"

Yes, you will need to be able to modify the JavaScript that gets created by Banner Maker Pro.

You will need to do 2 things.

1. Create the BODY TAG. There is only one <BODY> tag in HTML, so you will have to add the different banner rotator onload events to the BODY tag - see the first line below.

2. Change the name of all variables and functions for the second rotator. The second rotator will have different names for all variables and procedures. In this case, we added a '2' to every variable and function.

Below is an example of the banner rotator code for two different banner rotators.

-----

images = new initArray(
"banner2-1.gif",
"banner2-2.gif",
"banner2-3.gif"
)

alttext = new initArray(
"Google",
"GMail",
"Froogle"
)

function initArray() {
this.length = initArray.arguments.length;
for (var i = 0; i < this.length; i++) {
this[i] = initArray.arguments[i];
}
}

function rotatebannersrandom() {
var currentnum = randnum;
while (currentnum == randnum)
{
randnum = (Math.round((Math.random() * 2 ) ));
}
document.BannerAd.src=images[randnum]
document.BannerAd.alt=alttext[randnum]
bannerlink = links[randnum]
banlink.href=links[randnum]
setTimeout("rotatebannersrandom()",5000)
}

// -->
</script>

// -->
</script>

images2 = new initArray(
"banner1-1.gif",
"banner1-2.gif",
"banner1-3.gif"
)

alttext2 = new initArray(
"Banner Maker Pro",
"Banner Advice",
"Banner Banana"
)

function initArray() {
this.length = initArray.arguments.length;
for (var i = 0; i < this.length; i++) {
this[i] = initArray.arguments[i];
}
}

function rotatebannersrandom2() {
var currentnum2 = randnum2;
while (currentnum2 == randnum2)
{
randnum2 = (Math.round((Math.random() * 2 ) ));
}
document.BannerAd2.src=images2[randnum2]
document.BannerAd2.alt=alttext2[randnum2]
bannerlink2 = links2[randnum2]
banlink2.href=links2[randnum2]
setTimeout("rotatebannersrandom2()",5000)
}

// -->
</script>

// -->
</script>

</BODY>

Do you have tutorials?

Yes. Go to: http://www.bannermakerpro.com/tutorials.html

"Where can I store my images on the web if I do not have a website?"

There are several websites that will store images for you free of charge. Two of the most popular are:

www.photobucket.com

www.imageshack.us

These sites are very useful if you are having trouble figuring out how to get the images to your website.

"How do I save my images to photobucket.com?"

1. Save your image in Banner Maker Pro.

2. Go to photobucket.com and create an account if you do not have one.

3. Click on Browse, and select the image that you just saved. The default directory for saving files is c:\program files\banner maker pro 7.

4. Click on upload to load your image into photobucket.com.

5. Use the html tag, img code, and url link from photobucket.com. You do not need to use the Create HTML Code within Banner Maker Pro.

"How do I save my images to imageshack.us?"

1. Save your image in Banner Maker Pro.

2. Go to imageshack.us, click on Browse, and select the image that you just saved. The default directory for saving files is c:\program files\banner maker pro 7.

4. Click on upload to load your image.

5. Use the hotlink for forums(1) and (2), hotlink for websites, and direct link to image from imageshack.us. You do not need to use the Create HTML Code within Banner Maker Pro.

"The security settings on my computer will not let me download the software. What do I do?"

If you are getting an unknown publisher or no digital signature found message, save the installation program to your desktop and then run the install program by clicking on the icon.

"How do I use button image backgrounds with Banner Maker Pro to make web buttons?"

Click here for a explanation.

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