If you have Word on your computer you can easily create some neat text effects in Word, using the Word Art feature. You can create the Word Art, enchance it any way you want using the color/texture fill features, or 3D features, shadow, shape of the Word Art etc. When you have your text as you want it you can just copy (using ctrl-C). Make sure the Word Art is selected first (by seeing the resize boxes in the corners) I work with Word Art by having the Word Art, 3D, drawing, and shadow toolbars all showing.

Then you can go to your graphics program (specifically Paint Shop Pro, or Image Composer - probably also Photoshop but I have no experience with it) and paste it in as a new image, or as a layer for a graphic you maybe already be working on.

You can then set the transparency if needed and save as a gif file.

This feature in Word has helped me overcome some of the inadequacies of the version of PSP that I use.

You can use the same copy/paste for the autoshapes available in Word. Insert the shape into Word, format as desired, copy and paste into your graphics program.

Nancy