@dwporter
Hi again Don,
There appears to be some confusion here. Optimizer v2.0 (Basic and Pro) includes an enhanced version of the Fancybox lightbox script, and there’s a demo of it right on Optimizer’s homepage. It’s a full-screen overlay, but not technically a slideshow, as navigation between images requires user interaction. Is this what you’re after, at all? If so, I can definitely help you with that.
However, as I touched on yesterday via email, I suspect the slideshow demos you’re referring to are for the NextGEN Plus and NextGEN Pro plugins, developed by Photocrati Media at http://www.nextgen-gallery.com/. They’re different products. If you could provide a link to these demos, I’ll check them out to confirm that for you.
Cheers,
Mark
Thanks for the quick reply Mark. Optimizer Pro is the product I want, I was just unsure how much overlap it had with the others. Full screen is what I am looking for, user navigation rather than automated is fine, perhaps even preferred. So yes, please give me a hand getting full screen with Optimizer Pro to work with my site, http://www.CarLoversJournal.com.
Don
@dwporter
Hi Don,
That’s great to hear! 🙂
In order to set up a thumbnail gallery like the one on Optimizer’s homepage, simply go to Posts -> Add New or Pages -> Add New, and enter the following shortcode into the post editor… [nggallery id=x] (with “x” being the ID of the gallery you’d like to display) and click “Publish”.
Alternatively, you can use NextGEN 2.0.xx’s Attach to Post feature by clicking the green button on the “Visual” tab in the post editor, and then select the default “NextGEN Basic Thumbnails” radio button and click “Save”.
Optimizer’s Enhanced Fancybox Lightbox is installed and activated by default on plugin activation, but if you’ve changed any settings, you might want to make sure the Fancybox checkbox is selected and saved on Optimizer’s settings page.
That should be it really… just click one of your thumbnails on your newly-created post/page, and your images should load in a full-screen Fancybox lightbox overlay, just like on Optimizer’s homepage.
If you’d like to customize your Fancybox display, please see the new Dynamic Fancybox Settings Interface on Optimizer’s settings page, to change title styles, background color, background opacity, add responsive resize and more.
Let me know if you have any issues.
Cheers,
Mark.
Hi Mark,
Well, we are a big step closer. The lightbox effect is amazing, love it! I get a large window overlaid in the middle of my screen but it isn’t full screen, lots of background around it. Couldn’t figure out what to try next. It doesn’t appear I can attach a screen shot to this post but hopefully this link will display what I am trying to explain:
Thanks for your help. Once I get true full screen I should be nicely on my own.
Don.
Update: The link went to the correct page, but doesn’t show the screen. Click on any image to see the preview. I’ll email you the screen shot just in case.
@dwporter
Hi Don,
That’s fantastic to hear, and I see you’ve customized it with the new Dynamic Fancybox Settings Interface also. It looks great!
In regards to full-screen, I think that’s a bit subjective. Technically, Fancybox fills the entire viewport with a background overlay, then displays your images as large as it can inside the viewport whilst maintaining their aspect ratios.
Fancybox does apply a small margin for neatness, and I could provide a modification to reduce this if you’d like, however, by how much exactly? 10px?
The extra space to the left and right is due to Fancybox’s image scaling, which maintains the original aspect ratio of your images. If your images were both full-viewport-width and full-viewport-height simultaneously, they would be terribly stretched and distorted (unless the aspect ratio of your images exactly matched that of your viewport, which would rarely happen as viewport dimensions are highly variable).
There are however two solutions to fill more horizontal space…
1. Adjust your image dimensions so they’re wider.
2. We could disable Fancybox’s auto scaling, and your images would be full width (if the dimensions are large enough), but your images would need to be scrolled vertically in order to view their full height.
Cheers,
Mark.
Hi Mark,
We’re getting there (thanks to your suggestions)! Let me ponder some on the points you have made. Be aware I’ve been fully intending on off-loading the image editing/sizing/cropping/etc efforts on myself personally to do for Car Lover’s Journal. But first I need to know what the various image parameters are that I must meet for the optimal full screen display. This is exactly what you and I are doing right now. This approach will result in my having total control precisely how each page display will look to my viewers. The site’s acceptance by car lovers, as I see it, depends largely on having the most interesting, visually beautiful photo galleries possible being presented (along with associated articles and related information). Eventually members will be urged to create and maintain on the site their own journals to document and preserve the dozens of great experiences and memories we car lovers have had over the years. They may be private or public. Active ongoing member involvement is a goal.
We’re getting close to resolving this topic, I’ll reply to the issues you’ve raised in the next few days so we can agree on how best to utilize your NextGEN Gallery Optimizer Pro product.
Back at you soon!
Don
@dwporter
Hi Don,
As we’ve pretty much wrapped-up the support element of this topic, and as it’s been inactive just shy of two months now, I’m going to mark it as resolved. But please do feel free to add any thoughts you have in the future, if you’d like to continue the discussion (like any topic, it will remain open until a moderator has reason to close it to new replies).
All the best,
Mark.
