Carol, Is there a map loaded in the transparency part of your material? It sounds to me that if it's either completely solid or completely transparent then your transparency map is not loading at all. Right click on the sphere in your transparency tab in the material editor. Look and see if it's a mapped material or a procedural. It SHOULD be a texture map of which you should see the name at the bottom of the window. If there is no map than that is your problem for sure. Laurie