So i think I need to try and design a basic site for myself. I have found iframes to be very fast and easy to understand despite everyone saying "use css, php, etc". With those sites even clicking a menu item always refreshes the entire page even if the menu stay constant, and I personally think that looks bad. Anyway, what I want to know is if there is a cut and paste scripts that when an image is clicked, it opens "above" the page, dimming the background, and enlarges. I`ve seen it alot on photography pages and was curious as to how complicated it is. Thanks

iFrames are very bad because they completely destroy any aspect of website accessibility which I know in the UK is now a legal requirement. As for the whole page refreshing when you click a menu item you should try looking into AJAX.

Also even though PHP is a standard look at ASP.NET and VB or C#. And then look into Ajax integration.

Dave
I'm intrigued - where does it state that website accessibility is a legal requirement in the UK? Who's policing it?

AJAX frameworks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_framework) will make short work of this, though you need some programming skill. I recommend jQuery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jQuery) for its leanness. Once you have learned one of these frameworks you will be unbeatable.

i know basically no web making skills and don`t plan to learn. Iframes work perfectly fine and seemed to only be feared because they are not a technical language. I am too busy and not a programming mind to figure all that out, I am just looking for some scripts that can get plugged in there to make a semi decent photo section.

http://www.hotelmetropolis.com/html/hotel-metropolis-photo-gallery.html

like this page

That page uses javascript for some things, Flash for others, CSS and plain vanilla HTML for most.

But the enlarged photos are just new windows popping up atop the current one. (And doesn't look all that great on my system....the flash slideshow cuts through the middle of the pics for me.)

If you do a View Source (right-click, or whatever your browser wants), you'll see what they're doing. Not too hard.

They used a Lightbox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightbox_(JavaScript))... very popular. I suggest you use the newer Shadowbox (http://mjijackson.com/shadowbox/).

Looks to be a whole lot of work still, I guess we all have to start somewhere. Are regular frames frowned on like iframes are? I really will never know any hardcore programming behind a page (I don`t really have time to even try to learn it), php, css, java, etc are all waaaaay over my head and not my field, but I do need a basic page thats pleasing to they eye to get business going.

Check this out then: http://www.realmacsoftware.com/support/viewtopic.php?id=7090

would that apply to shadow box as well? I still may end up trying to convince my brother to do the programming, still looks awfully confusing :\ But if the tutorial works for shadowbox I`ll try and get my brother to do it.

I showed you that tutorial because you said it would be too hard to use Shadowbox. Lightbox is better than nothing :)