Yesterday I updated my Illustration and Photography galleries with Lightbox. I'm finding from different sites I visit around the net, that this effect is becoming more popular. So I decided to try it for a while with my galleries. It's an effect that, to me, eases navigation through pages that house a lot of images. Once you click the thumbnail for the full image, it opens the full size image in a 'floating' window that shadows the rest of page. Once the image is loaded, you're able to click 'prev' or 'next' to navigate through the rest of them. It's nice because it does allow me to add a description at the bottom of the image as well, which is something I've always struggled with. Remarkably, it was very easy to do. I did it by adding some Javascript in the HTML pages. You can add it to your own page if you like. Just go here for the instructions. And it works in Internet Exploder too.
I did have to slightly modify my code to get it to do exactly what I wanted it to, but it wasn't difficult at all. Originally, the 'prev' and 'next' links are hidden until you rollover them with the mouse. I changed mine so they show up all the time. I found that if didn't do that, it kind of left the visitor going 'now what do I do?'
I'm still putting a lot of work into this site. To me, it still takes too long to load, so I am working on that issue. More to come soon, including part II of the interview with Kate Beckinsale!
