Make a transparent gif

This may not be the right forum to ask this, but I do not see an obvious place.
I just want to take a gif file, select a color to make transparent and save it. This does not need a heavy graphics app. You would think that would be a save option in preview where you can simply convert image files.
I have photoshop, and sure you can make a transparent gif with that, but it is way too complex and not as simple as just select a pixel.
Am I missing something? Surely this simple function must be simple on a Mac. In the other world I use a simple free download MS gif editor. Pick a pixel and save. I am trying to find that on a Mac.

{quote}
When you are new to PS, and just want to do something simple, it seems way to complex. I am sure I will come to appreciate it over time.
There's never been enough time I've been using PS since v2 (which I got for free with a $1800 scanner that couldn't hold a candle to $300 scanners nowdays). I was switching over from *Aldus Digital Darkroom*
I've done the Classroom in a Book tutorials, the Lynda.com tutorials, went back to night school at the local college for photography help, and bought just about every update for PS as they came out.
Thousands of hours and dollars later:
I'm sure I'm not a PS Guru. You end up learning the parts you want to know about as you need them. At one time I couldn't conceive of any program better for my needs, but that was back in the print separation days. Now that almost all of my photo work is for the Internet, instead of print, I think Photoshop Elements 6 fits my needs very nicely. I use it as the external editor for iPhoto.

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    import java.io.PrintWriter;
    import java.net.Socket;
    import java.net.URL;
    import java.awt.*;
    import java.awt.event.*;
    import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
    import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
    public class GifDisplay extends JPanel implements ActionListener {
        JTextArea topTextArea;
        Color m_clrBg = new Color(0, 0, 100);
        static JTextArea bottomTextArea;
        JButton button1, button2;
        final static String newline = "\n";
        static JTextField namef, input_text; // Textfields
        Button display_button; // Display button
        static JLabel message, input_label, output_label; // Labels for textfields
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        static JButton button;
        static Image image, image1, image2, image3, image4, image5, image6;
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        static int start, start2;
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        int squareTop, squareLeft; // Coordinates of top-left corner of square.
        boolean focussed = false; // True when this applet has input focus.
        static boolean init = false;
        static DisplayPanel canvas; // The drawing surface on which the applet draws,
        // belonging to a nested class DisplayPanel, which
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            namef.setForeground(Color.BLACK);
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            add(namef, c);
            c.ipadx = 0;
            c.weightx = 0;
            c.ipady = 60;
            c.gridwidth = 2;
            c.gridheight = 2;
            c.gridx = 0;
            c.gridy = 1;
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            gridbag.setConstraints(bottomScrollPane, c);
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            c.ipadx = 60; //make this component tall
            c.weighty = 1.0;
            c.weightx = .8;
            c.gridwidth = 0;
            c.gridheight = 3;
            c.weighty = 1;
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            c.gridx = 3;
            c.gridy = 0;
            online = new JTextArea();
            online.setEditable(false);
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            c.weightx = 0.0;
            c.gridwidth = 4;
            c.gridx = 0;
            c.gridy = 3;
            c.weightx = 1;
            c.weighty = 1;
            c.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
            squareColor = Color.red;
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            squareLeft = canvas.getSize().width - canvas.getSize().height / 10 / 2;
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            c.weighty = 0;
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            bottomTextArea.append(mes);
            bottomTextArea.setCaretPosition(bottomTextArea.getDocument().getLength());
            Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep();
        public static void onup(User c[]) {
            online.setText("");
            for (int l = 0; l < c.length; l++) {
                if (c[l].active && c[l].name != null) {
                    online.append(c[l].name + newline);
        public static void sen(String h) {
            try {
                PrintWriter os = new PrintWriter(Abstract.soccer().
                                                 getOutputStream());
                os.print(h + "\r\n");
                os.flush();
                init = true;
            } catch (java.io.IOException c) {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            if (e.getSource().equals(button1)) {
                if (start == 0) {
                    start = 1;
                    sen(":exit:");
                    System.err.println("Exit");
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                    message.setText("Enter Name:");
                } else {
                    start = 0;
                    new refresh().start();
                    start2 = 0;
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            //Create and set up the window.
            JFrame frame = new JFrame("GifDisplay");
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            //Create and set up the content pane.
            JComponent newContentPane = new GifDisplay();
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            frame.pack();
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        public static void main(String[] args) {
            //Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
            //creating and showing this application's GUI.
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    class Abstract {
        static Socket s;
        static int serial;
        static String c[];
        static String name;
        static Image buffer;
        static boolean paint = false;
        static JFrame fra;
        public static Socket soccer() {
            return s;
        public static void soccer(Socket soc) {
            s = soc;
        public static void retu(String a[]) {
            c = a;
        public static void retun(String a) {
            name = a;
        public static void fram(JFrame a) {
            fra = a;
        public static void ser(int a) {
            serial = a;
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        static int f[][];
        Color m_clrBg = new Color(0, 0, 100);
        static Image buffer1;
        Graphics pad;
        final static String newline = "\n";
        private User m[];
        Image image;
        public void run() {
            int place = Abstract.serial;
            while (true) {
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                    GifDisplay.canvas.repaint();
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            int height = GifDisplay.canvas.getSize().height; // Height of the applet.
            buffer1 = GifDisplay.canvas.createImage(GifDisplay.canvas.getSize().width,
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            pad = buffer1.getGraphics();
                pad.drawImage(GifDisplay.image3, 55, 55,
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                              GifDisplay.canvas);
            Abstract.buffer = buffer1;
            Abstract.paint = false;
    }

    Cross post http://forums.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=637547
    � {�                                                                                                                                                                                           

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