Help needed with on-line catalogue.

[Chris]

I'm about to create an on-line catalogue web for friends who have
less of an idea with regards to web publishing than I do. A case of
the blind leading the blind.

I envisage a table, with a thumbnail picture of each item on its own
row, with descriptions, prices etc in adjacent columns.

I want the thumbnail to be a link to a larger version of the item in
question, such that when it is clicked it opens in a new window that is
dimensioned to only just hold the larger picture, and there are no
toolbars etc associated with the new window. The only other thing I
want in the new window is a 'Close this window' link.

I can set this up, but before I start I'd like to know if there are
any easy ways of doing so. I appreciate that java script or similar
would do it but I've no experience of this, so I'm looking for
FrontPage tips and tricks that would be helpful, or very simple code I
could copy and paste and tweak to make my life easier.

For example do I have to put each of the larger pictures on its own
page and call that page via the link from the smaller picture in the
table?

Or can I just have just one version of the picture, the larger one, and
display it in a reduced size in the table? If so how? Would this
affect page loading speed?

There are about 150 items in total, so making pages for each one would
be time consuming to say the least.

Any other factors I should be aware of?

TIA.

 

[Tom Miller]

I'm about to create an on-line catalogue web for friends who have
less of an idea with regards to web publishing than I do. A case of
the blind leading the blind.

I envisage a table, with a thumbnail picture of each item on its own
row, with descriptions, prices etc in adjacent columns.

I want the thumbnail to be a link to a larger version of the item in
question, such that when it is clicked it opens in a new window that is
dimensioned to only just hold the larger picture, and there are no
toolbars etc associated with the new window. The only other thing I
want in the new window is a 'Close this window' link.

I can set this up, but before I start I'd like to know if there are
any easy ways of doing so. I appreciate that java script or similar
would do it but I've no experience of this, so I'm looking for
FrontPage tips and tricks that would be helpful, or very simple code I
could copy and paste and tweak to make my life easier.

For example do I have to put each of the larger pictures on its own
page and call that page via the link from the smaller picture in the
table?

Or can I just have just one version of the picture, the larger one, and
display it in a reduced size in the table? If so how? Would this
affect page loading speed?

There are about 150 items in total, so making pages for each one would
be time consuming to say the least.

Any other factors I should be aware of?

TIA.

Chris,
Take a look at the Photo-Gallery template or component. It will support
displaying a thumb-nail version of the picture and when you click on it it
will display the full-sized version of the same file.
The trick is FP creates a thumb-nail sized version of each image when you
import the file.
This is not a replacement for an e-commerce site/catalog but it might do
what you need it to do.

Hope this helped,
Tom Miller
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