I'm trying to make transparent TGAs in Photoshop 8.0 for use with a modified lesson 33 can someone help please.

any ideas?

You have to add an extra channel.
To do this, display the channels window, and click on the "Create new channle" at the bottom.
Then simply select that channel (should be called "alpha 1") to edit the alpha valueof every pixel

I did that but the background is white instead of transparent (the white section of the channel is the visible part and the black is transparent right?)

How can you say the background is white?
In order to view all the channels together, you have to click on the square on the left of every channel; an eye should appear in it.
The trasparent parts (by the way, yes, white is for visible) will then appear red (at least in my version).

You need to create a layer mask if you want Photoshop to display it transparent. The background needs to be transparent, or not exist at all.

The help files are actually pretty decent about this (well, at least they've been in previous versions).

I get a red overlay on the background too, but the "transparent" part shows up white in my program and when I close and reopen the file.

The only help I can find is how to make Gifs and PNGs transparent, but I can do that fine.

It doesn't make sense, it has the checkerboard background indicating transparency plus the light red overlay showing where it's going to be transparent yet when I save it (with transparencies and 32bits/pixel) and reopen it or use it in my program I get a nice white background, I'm not seeing where the transparency is...

So the problem occurs when saving the file.
Are you sure "Alpha channels" is checked in the save options?
(By clicking on save as)

yep, I go to Save As, it comes up with .PDD and Alpha, Layers and ICC Profile checked, I go to .TGA, layers and ICC Profile are unchecked and Alpha is still checked and As Copy becomes checked I click save and select 32 bits/pixel, click ok. Then I close it and reopen it and the background is white again.

Solution? 24-bit .png

Better compression, better alpha.