Transparent Background

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Here's the banner from the previous page, which had a plain background. Now we want to make the background of the banner transparent so only the letters show against the background of this page.

You probably still have the background color set to the current background of the banner. If not, select the eyedropper tool and right click on the background of the banner.
Then go to Colors/Set Palette Transparency. A box will pop up asking if you want to reduce the image to a single, paletted background layer. Click on yes. Use the preset options and say ok. A window with three radio buttons will pop up; click on the second one, which should be showing your background color.
Choose Colors again, view palette transparency will now be one of your choices. Click on it. Because you put a shadow behind your text, there will be some traces of that color surrounding the letters. (That's why you match your background to the predominant color of your background before you start the banner). If your text looks fairly clean, you can save your banner now. Be sure to save it as a gif file instead of a jpg, since JPEG does not support transparency.

Here's the banner I just saved: it still looks a bit messy, so we're going to work on it some more.
Go to Colors/View Transparency again, and click on it to de-select it. The background color should look solid again.
Click on the magic wand. Set the tolerance factor for the color using the numeric edit control. The tolerance factor indicates how closely colors must match the color in the box before they are selected. I set my tolerance factor up to 40, as you can see in the box on the right. The tolerance factor can vary, but make sure the other selections are the same as in the diagram.
Click on the background, making sure to click inside any large sections inside O's or A's. Hold down the shift key while you click different areas; that way everything will be selected at once.
Select the Flood Fill tool and right click on the background (make sure the Fill Style is set to solid color). This makes your background one uniform shade. Deselect everything by right-clicking on the graphic with the magic wand, or go to Selections/Select None.
Again go to Colors/Set Palette Transparency. Go through steps 2 and 3 again. Be sure to save as a gif file.

Here's the banner after the last clean-up.