Gradient Help Please

[DraconianRain]

I'm not sure if it's a really silly mistake I am making but I can't seem to get a simple white to transparent gradient to work. I make sure to view in the render preview but something keeps going wrong or it doesn't show up at all. I've surfer this forum and the net and asked around but so far no help. I was wondering if anyone on here could possibly help me out? I'm not having a problem with anything else but this.

[jonbo]

Are you applying the gradient through the shape effect menu? look at this demo

[DraconianRain]

Apparently not, thank you very much!! I thought I might have just missed something simple. Can't thank you enough!