Just bought VSD this weekend and already have my site up and running. I'm a graphic designer, and I was really dreading the coding and Dreamweaver headaches. So the site sat on the backburner forever. Two days with VSD and I can't believe how easy it is to design sites. Truly, truly amazingly simply software. (And the support forums rock!)

One thing, though. I have a piece of advanced text that I'm using as a link (top right of the page) and it's rendering a little ragged. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

Once again guys, this software has been a lifesaver. Really, really nice work.

paulmorgandesigns.com

Whenever you use the Advanced Text function of VSD, the program turns that object into a JPG image during the export process. Since VSD doesn't have any anti-aliasing function, any text created this way will look a little jagged around the edges. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing

There was a thread about this awhile ago - and I don't remember who offered up this suggestion, but it worked for me - instead of using the fill color in the text options box, use the fill option from the menu bar (the paint bucket) to color your text. I had some white text and it had that "inner glow" look to it, just like yours has that blue in it instead of solid white. Using the paint bucket fill cleared it up.

Thanks again to whoever discovered that!

Another option, since you already know it's converting that text to an image, is to figure out the size of that end image and then create it yourself in your favorite photo editing program that has anti-aliasing and all the bells and whistles you might want on your text. Insert that image instead of the text image that VSD is creating and it will probably look a whole lot better

Thanks for all the comments. These forums completely rock.

I tried the fill approach, and even turned off the effects, but the text was still jagged.

I'm not sure creating an image for the button will work, because the text is already positioned over an image. Getting it in just the right spot to have the button blend in would be quite difficult, unless there's another way I'm missing.

I tried using a transparent PNG as a button (my first approach), but the background always came in black.

Thanks again for all the help.

OK. After reading about PNG functionality, I figured I'd just try to preview the site even though the PNG was all black (except for the text) in VSD. Sure enough, it worked. The "up state" PNG had transparency. But the rollover image (Same style PNG with transparency and shadow) turns all black.

Here's a look. www.paulmorgandesigns.com

Got it to work. took the HTML into Dreamweaver and forced it to see the proper files. Looks like VSD was saving the PNG files with different names. It saved the "up state" PNG with the name of the rollover image, and then saved the rollover image as a JPG.

Just a note of warning there Paul, You won't be able to put any changes you make outside of the program back into the .vnu file ever. The only thing you can do is see if you can find out what Dreamweaver is doing to fix it and see if you can do it inside VSD. Outside editing cannot ever be brought "into" VSD (some of the other programs by CC are like this also so watch for that issue), but you can always edit it using HTML Editor or Dreamweaver from the point that VSD is no longer what you want to use, basically as you already did.

Just thought I'd throw that in there in case you didn't realize that it isn't importable at all.

Thanks Jo Ann.

Not sure if anyone else has identified the problem of VSD renaming files, but it might be valuable for developers to know. Strange that the program would rename a perfectly good PNG to a JPG. Seems like an unnecessary step taken by the software (which still rocks, BTW, even with this hiccup).

Dang egg-addicts are everywhere!

Paul - I think I know what you're talking about (renaming files). I had a divider bar with a drop shadow on it. No problem. Copy/pasted it onto another page and previewed it - not good. In the files folder I found the culprit. There was the divider with shadow, but it also had some background color with it, enough for the shadow to "sit" on, and it was a jpeg. I think that's what is happening with you - if the text is on an image, it saves everything within the boundary of the text box.
I deleted the copied image files and just used the picture tool to insert the actual png image from its original folder onto each page. That worked, no more "confused" images.
I do find all these extra image files rather annoying - trying to keep up with which ones are needed and which can be deleted so that folder isn't packed with junk when the site is ready to be uploaded.

It looks like you got it working OK, but just wanted to say something about the png/jpeg issue in case others were wondering about it