how do you like gallerys to show?

[Daniel Buck]

What type of full-size image do you like to receive when clicking a thumbnail?

I'm just curious what everyone thinks about this, in regards to thumbnailed galleries. How do you like the images to show up when you click on the thumbnail.

#1 Pop up in a new page/window? either fitted, or full page, doesn't matter, (you would close the new window to get back to the web-page)

#2 replace the entire web page the same window, as in just a straight link to an image file (you would hit "back" on your browser to get back to the web-site and thumbnails)

#3 Replace just the thumbnails of the web page when you click the thumbnail, the web-page structure remains the same, only with with the full-size image integrated within the website shell. (you would hit back on your browser to get back to the thumgnails)

[Dennis Murray]

I'm going with #3 for the portfolio part of my site.

[John Thawley]

I'm not sure one answer suits me. Though I usually don't like option #2.

[Todd Corzett]

'doh - I didn't understand the descriptions... so scratch one vote for #2 and put it on #3. I would say though, with #3, you also need to have some nav buttons for 'next', 'previous', and 'index' (or something similar).

I use to have #1 and switched to #3. The main reason (besides the looks) was to allow for the option to integrate captions with the images (which isn't really possible with just linking to the images).

-Todd...

PS - Personally, I'm not a big fan of the flash based galleries/viewers out there. They can look good, but most of the time the thumbs are too small and the load times too long. I also don't like that I can't bookmark individual images.

[Daniel Buck]

Todd, I'm thinking of reworking my gallery, I currently have #2, but I think most folks would prefer #3. I didn't think about putting in a "next" button, that sounds like a good idea I think I might do that!

I haven't done web things in a while, but I think I might be able to write a script that would just search and find the next (or previous) image in the folder and display them. That would be nice :-)

[John Jovic]

Todd, I'm thinking of reworking my gallery, I currently have #2, but I think most folks would prefer #3. I didn't think about putting in a "next" button, that sounds like a good idea I think I might do that!

I haven't done web things in a while, but I think I might be able to write a script that would just search and find the next (or previous) image in the folder and display them. That would be nice :-)

I hate the "next" button. I far prefer to see thumbs which even vaguely represent the actual images (some thumbs don't even do that and are barely a 5% section of an image) and then SELECT which images I will see. I REFUSE TO BE TOLD...

I like the way my gallery works on my own site www.johnjovic.com (http://www.johnjovic.com) which is only mostly finished, but not all finished...

JJ

[Todd Corzett]

I hate the "next" button. I far prefer to see thumbs which even vaguely represent the actual images (some thumbs don't even do that and are barely a 5% section of an image) and then SELECT which images I will see. I REFUSE TO BE TOLD...

I like the way my gallery works on my own site

I think your site is a good mix of the thumbs and full image (what I really don't like is that I can't simply bookmark anything other than the main page). Personally, I HATE when people do the 5% selection of an image for the thumb... I look at the thumb, get all excited, and 80% of the time am disappointed when I look at the full image... or, I don't even bother clicking on an image because the 5% doesn't interest me. If I'm really interested in someone's work... I'll view all the images of-course, and that is when having a next button is so nice. I think the problem with putting thumbs and the full image on the same page is that you then really limit the size of the thumbs and/or the image... you also have someone looking at one image, with lots of other "distractions" around.

As for the next button... I like it because I CAN just click through them if I like. I also include a 'browse' button (same deal as hitting the browser's back button if you've only looked at one image) to get back to the thumbs. This allows for people who want to view any image they choose (then hit the back button), as well as those who want to click through them.

Looking at the stats for my website, there are several visitors who have clicked on a gallery and then used the 'next' button to go through the images one-by-one... there are also those who jump around. There are actually quite a few people who just go to a gallery and stop without even clicking on a thumb (which may be a bad thing actually).

-Todd...

[Daniel Buck]

well I got the gallery going, clicking on thumbnails brings up the larger image, which then has next/previous/up buttons for an alternative way of browsing.

www.404photography.net/color_index.php

Still have to correct the site for the positional shifting around every now and then when a differnet sized image is viewed, but for the most part it's going good I think. :-)

[John Jovic]

I tried to look at the gallery but it just wouldn't load fully, not sure why?

JJ

[Daniel Buck]

I tried to look at the gallery but it just wouldn't load fully, not sure why?

JJ
could you take a screen shot of what you see, and let me know what browser and OS you are using? Thanks! :)

[Jim Sykes]

Works ok for me on Mac using Firefox.

[Shane Parker]

A few reasons you're going to have all kinds of trouble now and in the future:

1. The code is all over the place. There is a ton of 'dirty' code such as "mm functions" (Macromedia DW proprietary code) coming out the wazoo that should be linked to externally.

2. You don't have correct document markup. You're missing the most basic <html></html> tag structure with no doc-type declaration. You have a closing </head> tag but no opening <head>. You have an opening <body> tag but no closing </body>, etc.

I could go on. Basically, the code is an absolute mess and current browsers will probably have trouble with it; not to mention there's no standards-based code so your likelihood of having future troubles goes up by 200%.

Hope that helps.

[edit] Click on this link: http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.404photography.net%2Fcolor_in dex.php to help you get started.

[Daniel Buck]

Thanks Shane, I'll give that link a shot :-)

[John Jovic]

Daniel, I tried it again and it worked fine this time. Pesky computers...

Not sure why you set it up the way you did though, needing to use the forward/next buttons to navigate instead of having the thumbs permanently visible and just the large 'selected' image on the same page. Nothing wrong with the way you did it and I'm sure many prefer that look.Just my AUD0.02.

JJ