well, there are fireworks png's (for macromedia fireworks, which I use) and those are layered files. I thought that might be the problem.......
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) files are
BY DEFINITION Single Layer Files. There is no support for multiple layers in the base PNG specification. MNG and APNG do support multiple animated frames, but they are also by definition, NOT PNG FILES.
In defense of ace here, quoted directly from the Adobe homepage:
Technically speaking, Macromedia chose PNG (which stands for Portable Network Graphics) as the native file format for Fireworks because the format has both open source and proprietary characteristics. In most applications, the default file format is proprietary, meaning other applications can't open it. PNG, however, is an open source file format. Some graphic applications and browsers can open PNGs too. However, they can only read the graphical portion of a PNG's file information. Fireworks PNG files contain a second "chunk" of data that other applications can't read, which contains proprietary information about things like slicing, interactivity, and any Live Effects that may have been applied.
So the Fireworks png isn't actually layered, but has extra info that tells the program what has beeen done to the original image file. Normal graphics programs don't read that, they just see the standard flat PNG portion of the file. Neat.
It also explains why Rifleman may have problems. Perhaps his edition of Paintshop Pro sees, but can't make heads or tails of the additional data.