Auction Template Help - Adding Auction Backgrounds

You can add a background to all of your auctions using "Inserts" on the
auction listing form. The background can be a solid color or it can be
an image that tiles the entire description area.

Get the Background Image

To use an image as an auction background, you will first need to host
the image online. okay doesn't host backgrounds unless you are using
theirPicture Manager service.

Before choosing an image as a background, take a look at the file size.
Most backgrounds are small images that tile repeatedly across the page.
They are usually 5K-10K. A file this size will load up with the page.
The image should be either a JPG or a GIF image. Do not use a BMP or
ART image.

While you could probably get away with a 50K image as a background,
that file size would be the equivalent of adding another photo, so
think carefully whether a background of that size is as important as a
product photo. We sometimes see instances where a single photo of 100K
or more has been added to cover most of the page. For dialup users,
that image may not finish loading until after they have looked at the
page. Since you will have the image cached on your geputer, it will
seem to load instantaneously for you, but your viewer must wait for the
entire file to load.


Image Hosts

The next stage is to get the image uploaded to a hosting site. You can
host the image on your website, personal webspace from your ISP, or an
online image host.
There are also several lists of free and pay image hosts listed at the bottom of myME page. There are two basic kinds of hosts:


Fairly simple anonymous-uploader hosting sites are useful if you
just want to put up a couple of backgrounds. An anonymous uploader
doesn't require you to register, but it also won't allow you to manage
your hosted images.
If
you decide you would like to self-host more photos in your auction,
and you would like to manage, move, and replace them, you
will need a host that allows you to log in with a user ID.




The Code


After your image is uploaded, here is the code to set it as the background to your auction. The image URL is added right after background=, or you can use a background color instead. the background color is added to the bgcolor= field. Severalcolor chart links can be found on my ME page.