Making "transparent" background images

Hey all,

I have a question which should be fairly easy to answer, so much so I'm
afraid someone will think me a fool...ok. Here goes:

I have played around in PaintShop Pro and various other graphic-design
programs that are way over my amateur head and still have yet to discover
how to make an image transparent enough that I won't have to highlight
text to make it visible. In other words, I don't just want a clip art or
pre-made background, I want to make an image myself, then place the text
over it. These images, by the way, are predominantly word collages,
trendy postmodern stuff you'd see on Douglas Coupland's site. =)

Anyway, please enlighten me as to how and where to do this....

TIA,
Jay

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