Posted by Andy Dingley on 02/16/06 16:41

John wrote:
> Is it possible to make an image a thumbnail in dreamweaver so that
> when clicked it expands to the bigger image?

No idea. Can't remember if DW can resize images for you but I doubt it.
Look at Photoshop and "Actions" instead as a bulk image processor /
resizer.

You need pairs of images (large and small) and some trivial HTML You
can template the HTML through tools like Dreamweaver.

Here's the basics

<a href="http://example.org/big.jpg" target="bigpicture"
title="Go clicky clicky see big"
onclick="some_javascript_window_popper
("http://example.org/big.jpg"); return false;"
><img
src="http://example.org/small.jpg"
alt="My cool thing" title="My cool thing" ></a>

You really need to test this from a static page before you try it live
on eBay!

The JavaScript I'm sure you can download from somewhere. It's basically
a call to window.open()

It doesn't even need the image name passed to it as a parameter, if you
write it well (it can get this by looking at the source of the event
and the href parameter in the <a> element).

DON'T use href="javascript: "
DO return false from the onclick event handler.
DO test it first, with JavaScript both turned on and off.


> I am just making a basic
> HTML page that is XHTML compatible. It is going to be something I am
> to sell on eBay.

Don't try to mix XHTML and eBay. XHTML is hard enough on its own.


> Once I have got everything the way I want, would I then just paste the
> HTML code into the area on eBay?

That's all you can do.

Incidentally, embedding a <style> element into the body of a page is
strictly invalid, but it works with most browsers and can be useful for
eBay.


> Would I need to have the images of the product referenced
> to an external site?

Yes. Sort out your own hosting for this first and test it before
uploading the auction. Cheaper than paying for auction photo hosting
services.

Remember that your image URLs need to be full absolute URLs, beginning
with http://hostingdomainname.com/...

> If you sell things on eBay I would be interested to know what method
> you use for designing the page with your items for sale.

Did it once, keep it as a copy on my local server, I just edit the
details and re-upload it each time. It's all wrapped in a <div>, which
keeps things a bit tidier for rendering on the eBay page.

A good technique is to capture some eBay page code and embed your own
stuff in it with "cut here" comment markers around it to remind you.
Then you see how it looks in context.

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