How to add Word art to a layout?

[IvoryKeys]

This is a really simple question but I'm very new at digital scrapbooking. I have PSE6 and everything that I've learned to do so far has mainly been by trial and error. TIA to anyone that can help me out.

I have this Word Art quote that I downloaded and would like to add it to my current LO, but when I try to add it the background white shows up around the Word Art. I really want the background to be transparent so my backgound of my LO shows up. What step am I missing?

[SharLamb]

open your word art file into a new transparent background. with the magic wand select the white surrounding area. Click delete. That should get rid of the white space. Now save it as a png file so you can use it again, and it w/ remain transparent.

hth
Shar
who is suffering dreadfully with a 5-star cold and sinus infection

[Jan]

Hi Ivory,
It's not you... it's a glitch in PSE 6.0 (and 7.0). If you're dragging your word art PNG up from the photo bin onto your layout, that's what's creating the white background. Just open the PNG on your workspace, and then drag it ACROSS to your layout. That will take care of the problem.

[IvoryKeys]

Shar-

I tried but there is still something that's not coming across right. After I saved the file as a png (new one that looks like it has a transparent backgound) I couldn't copy>paste into the LO and I couldn't drag it from one cascade window to the LO window. :(

I think I'll retry your steps in the morning when I'm not in a brain fog. It looked like the steps you sent me worked up until the final step of getting the WordArt into my LO.

Hope you get to feeling better quickly. My DH and Mom both have colds/sinus junk and our youngest DD (10 months) has bronchitis so my household feels your pain. Thanks for coming to my aid even though you feel lousy.

[IvoryKeys]

Thanks for the help. It wound up that the word art I wanted to use wouldn't work without a lot of effort. I'm not sure I can even explain why at this moment.

I had my LO and the wordart file open in the work space. I tried the magic wand>drag>drop method and only the white background moved - the words looked like cut outs in a white rectangle. This morning I tried clicking on just one gold letter of a word with the magic wand and moving that letter. It moved as a transparent selection which I could then fill in with color. I really don't want to move the wordart one letter at a time and fill it in with the paint bucket. :(

It's okay - now I have a good reason to try my hand at making my own wordart. I am going to try some of the files I saved from the same place where I got that particular word art and see if all of it has a similar problem. I didn't pick up much and I can always use it if I want a white background . . . I'm determined to make lemonade out of this.

This was definitely a learning experience.

[SharLamb]

Since all that moved was the white, after selecting it with the magic wand, go to Select>Inverse, then CTRL + C, then on the new document, CTRL + V.

Or if the word art is all one color, you can use the magic wand to select just the gold, making sure that the Contiguous box is NOT CHECKED. Then move it (or you may have to copy/paste, as above) to the new document.

Shar

[IvoryKeys]

That was it!! Thanks for hanging in there with me Shar. Unfortunately once I got it to work it didn't look like what I wanted. :( Hey, I still learned something new and now I know what to do if this ever comes up again. Matter of fact on a different Wordart by the same person I had to do the same thing and that time it looked like what I wanted for that LO.

I really appreciate the time you took to help me out. :)

[SharLamb]

So glad it worked out for you. It's been good for me to have something to concentrate on and keep me awake during the daytime! LOL I'm on an antibiotic for the sinus infection, so feeling better with each dose, and trying to stay awake during the day so I can sleep in my bed tonight!

The wonderful thing about PSE is that there are usually many ways to do things, and if you are always working on a copy, you can experiment to your heart's content. The more you play, the more confidence you build.

Shar