trouble setting background to transparent

K
Posted By
Kevin
Aug 22, 2005
Views
449
Replies
3
Status
Closed
I’ve constructed a project with many layers, and now need to bring it into PowerPoint with a transparent background. It’s now coming in with an opaque white background.

I thought I could just select the Background layer and set it to transparent with Add Transparency Mask, but this option is grayed-out on that layer, and I get a hint that the layer is partially locked. I can’t seem to unlock it by selecting the layer and selecting the padlock glyph at the top of the Palette menu–it too is grayed out.

I’ve tried other methods, such as Extract, but can’t figure out how to make the Extract tool actually *do* anything–there doesn’t seem to be any OK button. I can’t seem to make the Magic Eraser set all the pixels in the Background layer to transparent, either, perhaps because it’s locked, or partially locked.

Any advice?
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background settings transparency trouble

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BH
Bill Hilton
Aug 22, 2005
Kevin writes …

I thought I could just select the Background layer and set it to transparent with Add Transparency Mask, but this option is grayed-out on that layer … Any advice?

Rename the bottom layer to anything other than ‘Background’ and you can have your way with it … otherwise it’s locked.
J
jenelisepasceci
Aug 23, 2005
"Kevin" wrote:

I’ve constructed a project with many layers, and now need to bring it into PowerPoint with a transparent background. It’s now coming in with an opaque white background.

I thought I could just select the Background layer and set it to transparent with Add Transparency Mask, but this option is grayed-out on that layer, and I get a hint that the layer is partially locked. I can’t seem to unlock it by selecting the layer and selecting the padlock glyph at the top of the Palette menu–it too is grayed out.
I’ve tried other methods, such as Extract, but can’t figure out how to make the Extract tool actually *do* anything–there doesn’t seem to be any OK button. I can’t seem to make the Magic Eraser set all the pixels in the Background layer to transparent, either, perhaps because it’s locked, or partially locked.
Use an alpha channel and either tif or png as the output file format. In my hands, compressed tiffs from PS CS and CS2 do not work properly with powerpoint, therefore, I have been using uncompressed tiff-files since I switched to CS. Depending on the image data, it may be an option to select the background in Powerpoint with the transparency tool from the graphics-palette. If the background in the image approximately matches the background color of the PPT presentation, this may be a simple way to get a decent result.

Peter
T
Tacit
Aug 23, 2005
In article <n8qOe.10178$p%>,
"Kevin" wrote:

I’ve constructed a project with many layers, and now need to bring it into PowerPoint with a transparent background. It’s now coming in with an opaque white background.

You say "it’s coming in." How are you bringing it in? What file format are you using?

I thought I could just select the Background layer and set it to transparent with Add Transparency Mask, but this option is grayed-out on that layer, and I get a hint that the layer is partially locked.

Correct. A background layer is not a layer. You can never edit the transparency or create a mask on a background layer.

If you double-click the background layer, it will become a regular layer. However, "Add Transparency Mask" will not solve your problem.

I
can’t seem to unlock it by selecting the layer and selecting the padlock glyph at the top of the Palette menu–it too is grayed out.

Correct. You can not unlock the transparency of a "background" layer because a background layer has no transparency–it is always opaque.

I’ve tried other methods, such as Extract, but can’t figure out how to make the Extract tool actually *do* anything–there doesn’t seem to be any OK button. I can’t seem to make the Magic Eraser set all the pixels in the Background layer to transparent, either, perhaps because it’s locked, or partially locked.

Any advice?

Yes. You need to save a PNG or TIFF with an alpha channel that indicates transparency.

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