Welcome to the forum!
No need to apologize for newbie questions. (That's my favorite kind
)
Are you able to share the EPS file with us? Otherwise, all we can do is guess. Unfortunately I'm not set up to handle EPS files, but others here will be able to help. Although I can offer a few comments, which might help you to solve the problem, while you're waiting for them.
First, EPS files can hold both raster and vector contents. So it's possible the image, or part of the image is raster contents. That doesn't mean it can't be transparent, but it means it might not be. Here's how you can find out more info. Whenever you select something with Selelction tool (
) the status bar tells you what kind of object it is. If it says "Image...." that means it's a raster image.
You can test whether the screen area of the image is transparent by putting something behind it. Just draw a quick circle or something, and fill it with a solid color. Drag it on top of the screen area. Then do Object menu > Lower to Bottom.
If the status bar says "Group of...." you might need to ungroup, possibly more than once, before you can identify individual parts of the group. First do Ctrl + a (select all). Then Object menu > Ungroup, or this button
. Keep watching the status bar as you click ungroup. When it says "No groups to ungroup" you have everything in the file ungrouped. If you notice that ungrouping has changed how the whole drawing looks, you might have to undo, and perform the ungrouping a little more selectively (rather than ungrouping the whole file).
Although, even if it's not transparent, that doesn't mean you can't put some image on top of the screen area. It's possible that I don't completely understand what you're asking. Can you explain more about your need for it to have transparency?
Also just because everything is on a single layer doesn't mean there is no transparency. Or do you mean that you really don't see any transparency?
Well anyway, as I suggested, you might not need transparency. I'm just not clear what other requirements you have, besides put your own pictures in the screens in the image.