(newbie alert...)

I would like to take a set of icons that were designed as bitmaps and
convert them to the XPM format.

What is the procedure to deal with the icon's transparent surrounding?

SInce BMP does not support transparent pixels, I was thinking that I
should leave the undesired pixels in white, and then somehow (how?
with what software?) I should make the conversion to XPM, while
specifying that the white pixels should be converted to transparent.

Perhaps I should convert the whole non-transparent icon to XPM first,
and then use some software (again: which one? I only have Photoshop)
to change the background pixels to transparent.

TIA,

-RFH