You're probably doing it right but if the people you're sending to don't have software that accepts HTML formatted e-mail they won't see the background. If they do have the right software you need to be sure you're sending in HTML format. If I remember correctly, you can choose to send html to a user by going to their address card and selecting it....hope this is some help...I use netscape at home and that miserable IE at work and of course I'm at work!