--Program Usage Guide--  Basic Usage Tips:

Using Your Own Graphics

Overview

 This system comes with a number of graphics with it that you can select using my 'Graphic Picker' to use as your 'Box Body Graphic URL' or 'Contents Area Background Graphic URL'.

 This program can also create a Curved Corner Box body using your graphic as the starting point.  Which allows you to create a limitless number of different styles of Curved Corner Boxes and what you produce can be truly unique and assured to not violate anyone's copyright.  All the graphic has to be is any normal retangular graphic.  Any graphic you can upload to your web site or other web storage area can be used with Curved Corner Boxes.  You can use .gif graphics, or .jpg graphics, or .png graphics and you can use pictures of wood, stone, brick, metal, nature, your dog, your car, etc.  Your imagination is your limit!  Some of the Curved Corner Boxes on this website were created with a digital picture I took of part of my coffee table!

 There are 3 places you can use your own graphics with this system.  The first is the 'Box Body Graphic URL' field which controls the graphical style of the Curved Corners Box body.  Enter your fully qualified graphic URL into the field provided and then click anywhere outside the field to start the WYSIWYG display auto update.  Fully qualified URL means something like this 'http://yourdomain.com/directory/graphic.gif'.  The graphic will then tile into the Curved Corners Box body and will magically have Curved Corners!

 The second area in which you can use your own graphics is to use one for the 'Contents Area Background Graphic URL' field.  That is the rectangular area in the middle of your Curved Corner Box that contains the actual contents like say a text message with web links.  Enter a fully qualified URL into the field provided and it will tile to fill the background of the rectangular Contents Area in the middle of the Curved Cornered Box.

 The third place where you can use your own graphics with this system is to use the HTML <img src=""> tag as part of your Contents!  While testing this system, I sometimes used these test Contents: <img src = "http://curved-corner-boxes.com/curved/graphics/einstein.jpg" ><br> Albert Einstein
Those contents will show a picture of Albert Einstein in the center of the box and will print his name under it.  Notice the use of the embedded <br> as well to force his name to a new line.  His name would display at a size and color and font set in the 'Contents Area Text Styles Settings'.  You could also embed another image tag as well and have 2 images as part of your Contents. For more info on using graphics as part of you box contents, refer to the section of this manual titled 'Contents HTML Tips'.

Many tiling background graphics created for web page backgrounds work far better as the body of a Curved Corner Box!  I used a tiling bark graphic to create this box.  Some graphics that work great with this system are wood, wood logs, tiles, stone, bricks, metal, retile, and repeating lines.  Many of those graphics work great even if they do not tile perfectly!

Finding free graphics that work with Curved Corner Boxes

 There are many web sites that allow you to download free 'tiling background graphics'.  Many of those graphics work way cool as Curved Corner Box Body graphics!  Just download the graphic from the free graphic web site and then upload it to your website or other web account that you have access to.

 You can then begin using the fully qualified URL of that graphic in the 'Box Body Graphic URL' field and the 'Contents Area Background Graphic URL' field of this WIZARD. A fully qualified URL looks something like 'http://somedomain.com/directory/graphic.gif'.  You can also use the graphic URL as the src attribute of an HTML <img tag that you enter into your 'Contents Area' of this WIZARD. Refer to the section of this manual titled 'Contents HTML Tips' for more infomation on that.

 Some free graphic web sites that I found that work good with this system are:

Some Good Free Tiling Graphic Web Sites: GRSITES.COM ENDER-DESIGN.COM -2 live links in this box, no image map necessary!

 The Wood tiling graphics section of GRSITES.COM works great with this program!  Try some of these wood graphics there: wood019.jpg, wood038.jpg, wood084.jpg, wood089.jpg, wood104.jpg, wood110.jpg, wood116.jpg, wood144.jpg, and wood145.jpg.

 wood144.jpg as your Curved Corner Box Body will look like this:

Download the tiling graphic for a Curved Corner Box like this at GRSITES.COM

 The Curved Corner Box above was created with this system and was just copied/pasted into the web page at this point.  The link within the curved box is 'live', try clicking on it!

 wood104.jpg and wood145.jpg will look like this:

Download the tiling graphic for a Curved Corner Box like this on this page: GRSITES.COM

Download the tiling graphic for a Curved Corner Box like this on this page: GRSITES.COM

 Some other background graphics on that web site I liked were in the brick section and the beige section like beige095.gif.  Be sure you read the 'terms of use' of graphic web sites before you use the graphics on your web site.

Create and use your own graphics

 The final way to get a graphic to use as the body of your Curved Corner Box is to make your own!  That way there is no chance of violating anyones copyright.  The wood pattern that I use repeatly throughout this website was obtained by taking a picture of a board in my coffee table.  As you can see by the header at the very top of this column that says 'Program Usage Guide', the graphic does not tile perfectly but still looks way sharp!  

Make your own tiling graphics to use as your Curved Cornered Box bodies by taking a picture of part of a favorite piece of wood furniture, some marble or other stone, tiles, stucco, bricks, or maybe even alligator skin.

 You might want to take a picture of something specific your web sites purpose like roof shingles for a roofing company, a picture of aluminum siding for a company in that business, and so forth.  After you create the graphic, upload it to your web site or other web account that you have access to.  You can then enter the fully qualified URL of the graphic into the 'Box Body Graphic URL' field or the 'Contents Area Background Graphic URL' field of this WIZARD and you are ready to create highy stylized and business specific advertisement boxes, email signup boxes, content heading graphics, and navigation systems.

 Here is an easy trick to creating your own way cool tiling graphics to use as the body of your Curved Corners Box. Select an area out of the picture you took about the size of a wood plank, create a new graphic out of it, and then apply some layer effects to it like edge beveling. This method can create a beautiful 3D plank look for any graphic including wood, metal, stone, tile, and even alligator skin!  Upload the graphic and then enter the URL into the 'Box Body Graphic URL' field and this system will create a beautiful Curved Corners tiling plank look out of it. Doing it that way will also make your Curved Corner Boxes load even faster.

 If you do decide to use your own graphics, compress the graphic for the web for even more speed.  If you do not have a graphics program that can compress graphics for the web, then I would suggest the FREE online Graphic Compressor from NETMECHANIC.COM.

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