Okay, i'm going for a layout like this:

tlcorner.png | text+tmidline.png | trcorner.png
sideleft.png | (iframe) | sideright.png
blcorner.png | bmidline.png | brcorner.png

it's a rounded-corners kind of table layout, but I want there to be a "visual basic look" to the design of the table so to speak.

/text----\
|<iframe>|
\--------/

but whenever I type in text in the top middle frame, it appears as if strikethrough'ed by the background image.

/text----\
|<iframe>|
\--------/


I want to make it so the text can appear pre-spaced in between the topright corner image and the topmiddle background image. and have the topmiddle cell autospace the background (or i can <img> it if necessary) to appear just after the last bit of text.

Can you help me please?
Here is my little code snippet.
I don't have a website atm, but all the images are 15x15px png's with transparency. I had this code once, but lost it in a reformat ...

<table border="0" id="table1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td><img src="tl.png" width="100%" height="100%"></td>
<td background="tm.png"><font size="-2">text</font></td>
<td><img src="tr.png" width="100%" height="100%"></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><img src="sl.png" width="100%" height="100%"></td>
<td><iframe marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 frameborder="0" name="I1" width="55" height="15" src="box_b.html"></iframe></td>
<td><img src="sr.png" width="100%" height="100%"></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><img src="bl.png" width="100%" height="100%"></td>
<td background="bm.png"></td>
<td><img src="br.png" width="100%" height="100%"></td>
</tr>
</table>

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/merc...tboxexample.png

err, i suppose this picture explains what I'd like my table to be formatted like... but as I said, the text has the line through it.

Give the text a background color. By default, it's transparent, allowing the image to show through.

Wow, I feel a bit less bright not seeing such an obvious answer. Thank you very much for your timely help! They are coming out exactly as I want now.