Automating Image/Button Creation

[Smithers]

I have been manually creating navigation/menu buttons (.gif files) using
Fireworks. The buttons typically have some text in them. There are typically
three versions of each button - one for default, one for hover, and one for
selected.

For any given Web site, I have been copying various "button sets" and then
manually changing the text in each button. I would like to have some utility
that automates this work.

What I want to do is programmatically change the text in each button. Can
ASP.NET or C# or .NET somehow be used to automatically create button images
that have text in them? Ideally I'd like to point this utility to a folder
that has some GIF button templates (e.g., one for default, hover, and
selected), and then programmatically insert the button's text.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Steve C. Orr [MVP, MCSD]]

You can use style filters to create cool buttons dynamically.

Here's more info:
http://www.aspnetpro.com/features/2005/06/asp200506so_f/asp200506so_f.asp
http://www.aspnetpro.com/features/2005/05/asp200505so_f/asp200505so_f.asp
http://www.w3schools.com/dhtml/dhtml_css.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/filter/reference/reference.asp

 

[Smithers]

Regarding all of the solutions in the articles you recommend: Do they all
use CSS?
I have to ask because I'm not a sub scriber to ASP.NEt Pro and can't see the
articles in their site.

I'm really looking for a way to do this without css. The situation is that
I'm already creating and styling navigation "buttons" with CSS (and I've
automated this as well)... but I wanted to add the capability to do it with
graphics (e.g., gif files) as well.

Thanks.

 

[Steve C. Orr [MVP, MCSD]]

Yes, all those examples use CSS filters.
But here are some free alternatives that don't require filters:
http://SteveOrr.net/freecontrols/buttonsimages.aspx

--
I hope this helps,
Steve C. Orr, MCSD, MVP
http://SteveOrr.net