The simplest solution is to click the "Download" button to let the installer download a new version of Java just for AlphaButton.
If you already have Java installed, AlphaButton can use it as long as it is a compatible version. (The installer dialog will tell you which Java version is required.) If you have a compatible version installed, click the "Locate" button. Otherwise click "Download" to have the installer download a new version of Java for use only by AlphaButton.
Download a copy of the latest version of AlphaButton here and install.
If you are a registered customer, you will need to enter your registration code. If you do not have it, you can have it automatically emailed to you using our Lost Registration Code form.
If you purchased an older version of AlphaButton, your registration code may not work. (A registration code for version 1 will not work with version 2.) You can either purchase an upgrade to version 2 or download the installer for the version you purchased. Contact support if you need to download an installer for an older version.
First follow the previous instructions for resinstalling AlphaButton. You'll also want to copy any project files (*.prj) from the old computer to the new one, as well as any image files you've imported into your projects.
Note that if any projects refer to a font that is on your old computer but not on the new one, AlphaButton will use a default font when generating images for that project on the new computer.
The only difference is that all images generated with the free trial version will have a multi-colored "AlphaButton" drawn diagonally on them (a type of watermark). All other program functionality is identical to the registered version. This allows you to try the program before purchase to ensure that you are satisfied with it.
Even with the watermarks present, you can generate images and test out their appearance on your web pages. But these images may not be used on your final web page. You must purchase and register AlphaButton before using it to create the final images your your website.
An "upgrade" (as seen in the store) does not refer to enhanced functionality over the standard, non-upgrade product. The product is identical, whether you purchase an upgrade or not.
An "upgrade" refers to a discounted price, available only to customers of previous versions of AlphaButton. So if you purchased version 1, you are eligible to purchase version 2 at a discounted price.
Security is a high priority to us. When you make your purchase on our site, you can rest assured that your sensitive data is safe. We use SSL (secure socket layer) technology, the industry standard and one of the best software solutions available today for secure commerce transactions. Also, we do not store your credit card number. We only provide the information (securely) to VeriSign for processing. If you have any further concerns, please feel free to contact us.
You can have your registration code automatically emailed to you using our Lost Registration Code page.
If your email address has changed since you purchased AlphaButton, contact us with your name and previous email address and we will update our records and send you the registration code.
Select the upgrade item you wish to purchase and click "Add to Cart".
You will be asked for the email address you used to purchase AlphaButton and your prior order number. This information was sent to you when you purchased AlphaButton. If you do not have your order number, you can have it sent to you by providing your email address on our lost registration code form.
Once your prior order information is verified, the shopping cart will be updated with the correct upgrade price.
Yes, we agree that it should be. If you purchased AlphaButton 1.3 on or after June 1, 2002, your upgrade to AlphaButton 2.0 is free. Please follow the above steps for purchasing an upgrade to get your free copy. Once you have entered your prior order information, the shopping cart price will be updated to free.
Basically, a single user can install and use a registered copy of AlphaButton on a single computer. You cannot share your registration code with other users or use a single registration code on more than one machine. For the complete text, please view the
According to the terms of the license agreement, no. But we will generally grant permission to do so if requested. If you are interested in this, just ask us.
Your friend is welcome to download the latest free trial version of AlphaButton here. But you may not share your registration code with anyone, as stated in the
Doing so will void any upgrade pricing, support, or other services provided in conjunction with your purchase.
AlphaButton is a graphics program used to create groups of buttons, banners, logos, tabs, and more quickly and easily. AlphaButton specializes in the creation of "Textualized Graphics", or graphics with text.
AlphaButton makes it easy to create consistent graphics for your websites, presentations, newsletters, desktop applications, and more. You define the look of the graphics (the "style" or "design") and the text for each image, and AlphaButton does the rest. It merges the text with the style to create a consistent set of images. All images in the set will have the same look, just different text.
AlphaButton handles many tedious details for you, like image sizing. You can tell AlphaButton to make all your images the same size, or to make each image just large enough for its own text. You can also specify a pixel size for all of your images.
Yes. But there are a couple of things you may need to do to get this to work:
AlphaButton will not create an image if there is no filename. By default, AlphaButton determines the image filename from the text. If there is no text, you need to set the filename yourself. To do this, double-click on the cell in the "Filename" column and enter the desired filename. (This should not include the path or the file extension. These are determined automatically from the "Output Directory" and "Output Format" settings.) Once a filename has been entered, the image preview will be shown.
The image size is generally determined based on the text. If there is no text, this size will have to be set to something else. Use the settings on the "Size & Layout" and "Size & Layout (Custom)" tabs to specify the desired size. You can still use settings like "All Same Width" and "All Same Height" if there are other images in your set that do have text. Otherwise you will probably want to specify a pixel size.
Change the "Background Color" on the "Overall" panel to the desired color. You can also choose to make that part of the image transparent. See Overall Design: Background Color for more information.
Change the "Background Color" on the "Overall" panel to transparent. You will also need to pick a color that AlphaButton will use to smooth the edges of your images against. See Creating Transparent Images for more information.
When using transparency, you should also change the "Output Format" to GIF, since that has the best transparency support in web browsers.
This cannot be done in the current version of AlphaButton. The design of all images in a set is the same; the only difference between them is the text. See Basic Concepts: Images Made in Groups for more information.
By default AlphaButton will make your images large enough for the text they contain. So to make an image bigger, the simplest way is to increase the font size. (Several other aspects of the design may also affect the size, such as the shape and 3D effects and shadows.)
You can also specify a pixel size for the image on the "Size & Layout (Custom)" panel.
The position of the text within the image is controlled by the spacing and margins. The spacing adds a gap on all sides, whereas the margins let you specify a gap for each individual side. See the user manual for more information.
While a circle isn't a standard AlphaButton shape, it is possible to make. Set the shape to "Oval" on the "Shape" panel. Then go to the "Size & Layout (Custom)" panel. Click on the "Pixel Size" radio button. The width and height will be pre-filled with the current image dimensions.
Pick the larger of the 2 numbers and enter it in the other field. (For example, if it shows a width of 50 and a height of 40, change the height to 50.) That will give you a round button.
The caveat to this approach is that it disables AlphaButton's ability to automatically determine the best size for your buttons. To turn this ability back on, change the size back to "Fit Text", "All Same Size", or another auto-sizing option. This will change the images back to ovals. Once you make the desired changes (like adding new buttons, changing the text, or changing the design of the buttons), change the size back to a fixed pixel value to make them round again.
You can import an existing image to fill the text, shape, shadows, and more. Most often you will want to use an imported image to fill the shape. To do this, click the color swatch on the "Shape" panel and choose either "Image" or "Tiled Image" as the fill type. If you want to preserve the size of the imported image, so it won't be stretched or compressed, choose "Image" and set the size on the "Size & Layout (Custom)" panel to "Fit Shape Image". See Changing Colors: Importing Existing Images and Overall Design: Image Size Based on Imported Image Size for more information.
You cannot create an image with an icon and no text; no icon will be drawn if no text is specified. The closest you can come to simulating this is to add text to the image and set the translucency of the text to 100%, making it invisible. See the user manual for more information about translucency.
Create the text as usual. On the "Shape" panel, make sure the "Shape" is set to "None". Then go to the "Overall" panel and change the background color. If you know what the color around the text should be, set the background color to match. Otherwise, set the background color to transparent. View the user manual for notes about using transparency.
New templates are released as updates to AlphaButton. So if your copy of AlphaButton is up to date, you have all available templates. To update your copy, choose "Update AlphaButton" from the "Help" menu.
You can't create new templates that appear in the template browser. However, you can use project files to simulate templates. See Creating New Templates (Almost) for instructions.
A project is all the information you give AlphaButton about a particular group of images. All images belonging to a project will share the same style and Output Directory, although each will have its own Image Text and Filename. By saving a project, you can continue your work later or modify and re-export an entire group of images whenever you need to. See the user manual for more information.
Yes. As long as the other person has the same version of AlphaButton installed and the fonts you've selected, the resulting images will be the same. If you use imported images or icons in your project, the location of those files on your hard drives must also be the same.
You cannot do this. The project file is needed to change the text or designs; you cannot do it with the exported image files alone. As explained in Basic Concepts: Projects, a project file contains information about your designs that AlphaButton uses to generate your images. Information like the text, font, shape, colors, and more are contained in the project file. The exported image files don't contain this information, so AlphaButton is unable to use them to load settings.
As much fun as AlphaButton is to play with, its true usefulness comes from its ability to create graphics for use in other applications, such as creating web pages. By clicking on the "Export Images" button, your images will be saved on your computer so they are ready for use with any other installed applications that support PNG, JPEG, and/or GIF image formats.
The output directory is the location on your computer where your Exported Images will be saved for use with other applications. You can use the provided default directory or choose a different location if you prefer. You may want to create a new directory for each project.
The watermarks are only added to exported images when running AlphaButton in free trial mode. You need to purchase and register AlphaButton to remove them. To purchase, visit our online store. See Generating Image Files: Removing Watermarks for more information.
AlphaButton tries to use your default browser to view the sample page. If this isn't working, try setting the browser directly. From the "Web Preview" menu, select "Choose Browser", then "Select". Specify the executable file for the web browser you wish to use.
When using Windows XP with service pack 2, the default Internet Explorer settings prevent scripts from running in files on your local computer. You will see a yellow information bar across the top of the browser window that says:
To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this file from showing active content that could access your computer. Click here for options...
With the default Internet Explorer settings, you will see this message when accessing your page locally, such as with a web preview. But your users won't see the error, since they'll access your page from a remote server.
If you want to get rid of the message locally and allow the mouseovers to work, you have to change the security settings in Internet Explorer. This change will lessen the security restrictions that Microsoft has set as the default. Be sure you are comfortable with that before proceeding.
Choose "Internet Options..." from the "Tools" menu in Internet Explorer.
Click the "Advanced" tab.
Scroll down to the "Security" section.
Check the box that says "Allow active content to run in files on My Computer".
Click "OK".
Reload the web preview page and the information bar should be gone. The mouseovers will now work.
Start by exporting your image files from AlphaButton. Then see if your web design program has built-in functionality to add the images. (Most do.) If so, follow the instructions available with your web design program for adding images. If not, use the "Web Page" panel in AlphaButton to specify information about your web page, then click "View HTML Code" to see the code for each of your images. You can then copy and paste the code into your page.
Adding images to web pages is a more substantial topic than can thoroughly be covered in a FAQ. See the user manual for more information. Specific instructions are also provided for using AlphaButton with Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver.
When you install AlphaButton for Windows version 2.2 or higher, the FrontPage add-in is automatically registered. You will see an "AlphaButton" menu in FrontPage. Use that menu to access the add-in features.
If you have an older version of AlphaButton (2.0 or 2.1), you will need to update your copy of AlphaButton to get the add-in. Choose "Update AlphaButton" from the "Help" menu to do this. Restart AlphaButton after the updates are complete and choose "Register FrontPage Add-in" from the "Web Page" menu. That will install the "AlphaButton" menu in FrontPage.
Yes, AlphaButton should be compatible with any web design program. While there is no direct integration with web design programs (other than FrontPage), the image files that AlphaButton generates are all standard web formats. So you can export the images from AlphaButton and use them in your web design program just like any other image files that you would create or download.
The above code will leave a border (typically blue) around the image, indicating the hyperlink. Specify a zero-width border in the image tag to get rid of it:
A number of web design programs handle this automatically. Look at the documentation for the program you are using to see if your program can use the image files generated by AlphaButton to create multi-state (or "rollover" or "hover") buttons. You can find more information in the user manual.
For hand-coders, please refer to the user manual for a description of the code required.
Support is available by email and by phone. Email is generally preferred since project and image files can be attached, and HTML code can be included. See our support page for more information.
Yes, we offer demos that illustrate how to use AlphaButton. These demos are screenshot videos of AlphaButton in use with some added information. It is highly recommended that you watch these demos to gain an understanding of how AlphaButton works and what it can do.
We also have a quick start guide that gives a basic overview of AlphaButton.
Yes, there are several examples in the user manual. These show step by step instructions for creating particular designs.
In addition to following the examples, another good way to build understanding of AlphaButton's controls and what they can do is to open templates that you find appealing and look at their settings. All template that come with AlphaButton were made with AlphaButton and can be recreated from scratch.
Context Graphics is located in San Ramon, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
What our users have to say...
I used AlphaButton in conjunction with Front Page, PhotoShop, Illustrator and also in desktop publishing. I use college interns in my business, and this is a great way to get them productive much more quickly, since they are with me only a short time. The extra flexibility will improve the quality of the projects they are able to turn out.
Mary Britsch
Profit Enhancement, Inc.
Maryville, IL
