title: How do you put a gradient background on ASP.NET menu items?
body: <p>The boss wants the master page's menu to look nicer.  I generated my gradient file with one of the tools available on the net, no problem there..</p>
  
  <p>I tried to make a CSS class for each menu item but when I use the background-image directive and the style builder, I get a line like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>background-image: url('file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Username/My Documents/Visual Studio 2008/WebSites/ThisSite/Images/Gradient.png')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>...when what I <em>want</em> is</p>
  
  <pre><code>background-image: url('~/Images/Gradient.png')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The first url will, of course, only work when I'm debugging on my local machine - deploy this and I'm hosed.  So many other ASP.NET objects work with "~/" to indicate the top-level directory of the website but my css file doesn't like it and I can't set a background image for the menu control or the menu items - seems like a GLARING omission when I can do it to so many other controls.</p>
  
  <p>What am I missing?</p>