I like creating text in photoshop, saving it as a png file and then placing it on my web page in VSD. However, those text png files just show up as black boxes and I must choose preview to see them.
Makes it hard to edit variuos pages if I can't ;see what is there without previewing first.

I did a search of previous posts to see if there is a way to make those appear in the design process, but found nothing.

Does anyone have any tips on this subject?

Thanks.

My only tip for the moment would be to remind you that the Search engines will not be picking up text on image files. Perhaps someone else can give you more specifics on the VSD situation.

Don't know if or when VSD will have the capability to view PNG files live. It would be nice, just may have to hurry up and wait.
What I've done to get by is design the page using regular text just to get an idea of placement and eye appeal. Then I started replacing certain area with PNGed text.
That being said, the only words I do this with are ones I don't care that the google bots can't see.
Hope this helps.
rodgw

Thanks for your replies. The site is directed toward a specific group of students, so search engines aren't important to me.

Maybe the next version will allow a little more flexibility.

If you are not doing anything too crazy with your PNG text, simply type it in VSD, select the font you want to use, add a drop shadow to it but make the drop shadow 100% transparent (so you can't see it) - unless you want a drop shadow.

This will render out as a graphic when you upload your site. Also will show up in preview.

You can work on it as type in your VSD file, but ti will become a graphic in the final rendering of the site to HTML.

This is because VSD has to do this in order to apply any effects to text. Even if the drop shadow can't be seen, the text still registers as having an effect applied.

You can also add whatever additional effects you want to directly in VSD otherwise, and get the same effect.

In addition, you can use whatever font you have on your system - it will become a graphic anyway, so it will hold it's Font-like goodness and shape visually.

That may help in some situations.

Maybe this will be different in VSD 7, but for now, at least it accepts PNG files (unlike a few years ago).
Would your students ever need to copy/paste text? I'd also be concerned with slow-loading pages if there's a lot of text displayed as PNG files rather than plain text which is very light.
I'd follow Dave's advice for headings, captions, etc., and use a web-standard font for paragraph text (keep it fast to load and easy to read).

I dont know the technical term for it, but what Dave explained so thoroughly (best i've seen yet) is exactly how this page was done www.sarahphotographer.co.uk/

If you run your curser slowly down the page it will change appearance showing you which parts are TEXT, and which parts are ALTERNATIVE TEXT converted in vsd to an image

hope that helps explain it for you