I'm working with transparencies for the first time in order to allow the site to scale with different resolutions. So yes, I'm a total n00b as far as this is concerned and I'm having a really hard time googling to find the answer on my own.

I know that once you set a div to be semi-transparent, it affects everything within the div. What I need is to have the background in the div semi-transparent (it's a color overlay over the base body background image), but to have the text within the div remain 100% opaque. Is this even possible? Is there a way to put another layer on top of the semi-transparent layer so that the text can stay opaque? Or am I really trying to do something that can only be accomplished through images or flash?

Thanks so so much for all help in advance.

Take a look at how lightboxes do it. That's essentially what they're doing - the opaque layer that covers the page, and then the layer that goes on top of that layer. You are correct that the content cannot go inside the opaque layer, they need to be in separate, probably using some sort of positioning and layering for the effect to work.

Adrian