I know in the upload page, there is a check box which disables the constrain proportions on that screen, but when I resize the image in design view it still constrains proportions.

Yes.

 

Please set Editor.MaintainAspectRatioWhenDraggingImage Property to false.

Editor.MaintainAspectRatioWhenDraggingImage Property

Thank you very much for your help on this issue.  Working great now.

 

I do have another question.  I seem to be getting a lot of distortion on my images even if I'm using contrain proportions.  Do you know what could be causing that.

 

Example: the uploaded image is 1000 x 1000 pix and I resize to about 500 x 500 and it distorts the lines.  Is there anything that could improve the quality?

can I get an help with this questions?

By specifying the height and width in the img-tag, you will not optimize the image quality and image loading speed. The full size image will be loaded over the wire to the browser, then the browser will do the shrinking. It could be get some distortions. It all depends on the client monitor and browser. If you want to resize the image and have good quality images, you need  to find an image editng tool, like fireworks or photoshop. With this kind of tool, you can resize the images with good quality. Then upload the images to your site, the image loading speed will be improved as well.