Images And Articles

[TCH-Rob]

Me again,

 

I am working on adding some articles to my site. Not everyone knows what some of the things I talk about are but would if there was a picture of it for reference. What I mean is, not everyone knows what a tsuba is but if you saw a picture of the hand guard on a Japanese sword and I said that was a tsuba then you would know what I was referring to.

 

I have some pictures but am wondering the best way to incorporate them into the article. Should I use the column method and have the pictures in the right column and the text in the left, stager it or put them in-line? Javascript popup?

 

Ideas?

[james8547]

I personally find it helpful if the article has links to the picture. For example: A tsuba is a Japanese sword.

[TCH-Bruce]

Links to images make the most sense and would save on bandwidth. People that knew what you were talking about may or may not click to view the image. It would also be a plus for people on dial-up. Yes, I've discovered there are still people out there without a broadband connection.

[kaseytraeger]

I agree with both TCH-Bruce and james8547 that the best approach is to use a link that will open a separate window to display the graphic. However, you may want to at least consider using thumbnails for some of the more important pictures. I personally find it helpful to be able to quickly scan graphics, and if I want more detail, to click on the graphic and see a larger, clearer image. However, I'm not sure what your target audience is. If they are on basic dial-up service, then loading thumbnails may slow down your site's loading speed, thereby causing some of your users to move on. In this case, then TCH-Bruce and james8547 are absolutely correct -- stick with text links.

 

I don't think I've added much to the mix, but at the very least, you've got a third opinion!

 

[TCH-Rob]

OK, so links it will be. Now, to pop-up or not to pop-up?

[TCH-Don]

don't forget an alt tag to explain

click link to see image

A pop up might be easier, but will need a close window link

and include in alt tag about the image will open in a seperate window.

[kaseytraeger]

My personal taste is to use pop up windows. But you need to forewarn your users that images will appear in a pop-up window. You can do this, as TCH-Don has suggested, using the alt tag for images, or you can make a statement to that effect somewhere on your web page (where it's easy to see). It's generally an accepted courtesy and wise netiquette to advise users when pop-up windows will appear. But beyond that, many people now have pop up blockers in their browsers (I personally have a Google toolbar and a Yahoo! toolbar attached to my browser toolbar, both of which block pop-ups). They'll need to know to expect pop-up windows so they can temporarily disable their pop-up blockers.

 

One of the things I like about using pop-ups in this case (versus opening it in the same window) is that you view more than one image at a time in multiple pop-up windows.

 

[TCH-Bruce]

One of the things I like about using pop-ups in this case (versus opening it in the same window) is that you view more than one image at a time in multiple pop-up windows.

Unless the person that wrote the popup uses the same target name. Then the image will load into the already open popup.

[DarqFlare]

Use a pop-up with title="click this link to see a picture" in the link declaration.

 

Use a link with window.close() in the popup.

 

Just my opinion.

[snipe]

you might also want to specifically warn users that they must disable their popup-blocking software in order to view the images.

 

personally, I wouldn't use javascript popups simply because most popup blocking software can be "overidden" on a click by click basis by holding down the shift or control while clicking (depending on the program) - if javascript links are used, depending on how you code them, it will override the popup software, but the link won't launch properly since the actual "address" of the window is a ahref="javascript(foo)".

 

Just my 2cents

[kaseytraeger]

One of the things I like about using pop-ups in this case (versus opening it in the same window) is that you view more than one image at a time in multiple pop-up windows.

Unless the person that wrote the popup uses the same target name. Then the image will load into the already open popup.

Or you can do like I do and just bypass JavaScript pop-up windows and use the old standby <a href="..." target="_blank">. I've done that in a photo album I created. The main page has a bunch of thumbnails. When you click on each thumbnail, the larger image is presented in a standard browser window. Each thumbnail opens a new window and doesn't overwrite anything in a prior window. There's also no worrying about whether the user has disabled JavaScript. I use pop-up window blockers when I web surf, and I've found that these windows were not blocked when I tested the page.

 

I'd say that if there's a down-side to this method, it's that the "pop-up" window doesn't look as cool as it could when created by a JavaScript program. For example, I can't create a chromeless window or a window without certain toolbars or the status bar. Basically, they get a brand new browser window with all the bells and whistles.

 

I still make sure to warn users that clicking on a thumbnail photo will open a full-size image in another pop-up style window.

[curtis]

I also use the target="_blank" for any additonal info or to view something full size.

I never disable my pop-up blocker. I even went so far as changing my bank account about a year ago because their sign-in page was a pop-up.