Loading bitmaps

I''m reading Tricks of Windows Game Programming Gurus and I have a problem with loading my own bitmaps. In chapter7 Andre is loading his own bitmaps and they load fine but when I want to create and load my own bitmaps I get wrong colors. I use Paint Shop Pro 7 and I must be doing something wrong when I create background or sprites. Has anyone have any answer to my problem? Why seemingly same bitmaps one Andre''s and one created by me have different results at execution? Ps: It has nothing to do with the error Andre has made when scanning bitmaps dest_ptr += (ddsd.lPitch);//instead of dest_ptr += (ddsd.dwWidth);