How to make a gradient background using Photoshop
This page is based on instructions by fellow students Francesca and Audrey
The background is made in Photoshop and put on to the DW page as a background image.
To prepare the image:
You are going to make a narrow vertical sliver that will be repeated across the x-axis of your background.You need to decide on the height: the value will depend on whether your page is a fixed size or a scroll-down type. For a fixed size page just make the height slightly longer than your web page size. For a scrolling page it would be safer to make it a bit larger than twice the amount of your page height value. A 900 pixel height is a good place to start.
In PS, file > new, complete the menu box with width and height. Make sure colour mode is RGB
With page open select the gradient tool from toolbar (looks like a shaded square), select the gradient you want from the choices on the top tool bar and click on the gradient box to bring up the gradient editor.
Choose your colours - you can do this on the gradient editor by clicking in the given colours to bring up choices, or if you are using only two colours you can set them as the foreground and background colours.
To put the colours on the sliver
With gradient tool selected, hold down the shift key (to keep the line straight) and drag the mouse down the sliver (top to bottom or bottom to top - the colours would be reversed)Save your work as a psd and save for web as a jpeg.
To put the background on your page
Open your DW file. Choose Modify Page Properties from the top menu bar and in the menu box browse to your jpeg image.
In the repeat box have repeat-x. Click OK and your background will appear on the page.
Check in Preview that the background reaches the bottom of your page if it is long.