anchor links; it WAS workin...what happened?

hi all, sorry if this is a moronic question, but here i go.

i'm building a guitar gallery consisting of two long pages; the first page has
thumbnails of each guitar,
and the second has each guitar's description and additional pictures.

here is a link to the "thumbnail page"
http://www.gilaguitars.com/guitargallery/individualgtr.htm

when you click a guitar's thumbnail (on the first page), it should go to that
particular guitar's description and additional pictures (on the second page),
but sadly, it's not working out that way! the problem i'm having is that no
matter what guitar you click on the thumbnail page, it always goes to the very
top anchor on the description page. it was working the other day, and i don't
believe i've done anything to change the anchors.

i'm using mx2004, and i've put anchors on the "description page" for each
individual guitar by selecting insert ->anchor link, then typing the name of
the anchor. i then went to the "thumbnail page" and linked each thumbnail to
its corresponding anchor link. (and i was certain to type the name of the page,
then #, then the name of the anchor correctly)

i'm goin outta my mind, any suggestions? other than "ditch the idea
altogether" that is...
thanks,
sully

I have just looked at the source code on your description page and cannot find
any of your hidden anchors.
When you click on a thumbnail, the page is generating the guitar numbers
correctly but they are not on the second page - at least I can't find them.
(eg - http://www.gilaguitars.com/guitargallery/individualgtr.htm#ltd199)
#ltd199 is not found on the page.
Which is why it defaults to the top of the screen.

You do not need an anchor for every guitar on the description page. Most
likely one for every couple of rows, as when it is working, the page will only
scroll down to the level of the anchor. As you can get more than one row of
guitars on the screen, (I see 2 and a half, but some people will only see
less). Just put an anchor on the row end. That saves on anchors and also
perhaps some link directions.

I can only assume that after setting up the anchors, you did not save the file.

thanks for the reply, i appreciate it! good idea about not putting anchors for
each guitar.

the weird thing though, is that when i open the page in DW, i can see all the
anchor tag icons, which would lead me to believe they're there, no? it's
strange that's the case.

thanks again for your help.

sully

still goin out of my mind. i've looked thru the coding, and the $#@$ anchor
tags are there, and it's still not workin...
or am i a moron and missing something else? (it's okay to say "yes, sully, you
are a moron!")

thanks,
sully

I'm using a G3 Imac & IE 5.1 When i click un your thumb nail I get
"Only" that Image. Seems fine to me..... Luck

Two things-- when I follow your first link to the master page, then click to
get to the detail page, it goes to ../individual.htm#anchor. When I follow the
second link in your post, though, it goes to individualgtr.htm.

So is it individual.htm or individualgtr.htm?

Secondly, I didn't see any named anchors on either page when I did a
View->Source. Are you *sure* you have named anchors in your source? Did you
perhaps insert the anchors into a third version of the individual page you
haven't linked to?

Lastly, the individual page is HUGE. I'm sitting on a pretty hefty DSL line
right now at work and it took several seconds to finish loading. I could see
the top part of the page while the rest of it was rendering, but don't forget
that the entire page will render before the browser jumps to the anchor
specified in the URL. So, if it takes several seconds on a DSL connection,
imagine that on dialup. Then imagine the huge delay between the time the user
first starts to see the page and when the page finally jumps to the specified
anchor.

interesting point on the page size; there's a gila monster part of that site,
too, and there's way less images, and it seems to work okay on that.

as far as the anchors, yes, i'm sure they're in there. looking at the page in
design view, i can see the anchor icons in the spots i put them in. i'd only
assume that if i can see them in the design view, they're in there.

perhaps i should break up the indvidual page into two or three? that way, it'd
load faster, too.

thanks again,

sully

Alright, I see the anchors. Try putting something in the links; I know an empty anchor can cause a problem.
<.a name="something">.&nbsp;</a>

One other interesting behavior-- the anchor "vvv" works. When I click on that
guitar from the master page, the page jumps to that record. The subsequent
anchors do not work. Clicking on the other guitars from the master page just
opens the detail page at the top.

Exactly! The VVV anchor works fine, and if you go to the gila monster section
of that site, all of the anchor tags function as they should, with the
exception of the "gila monsters for sale" section. that part behaves in the
same way as the guitar area. It's maddening.

I just finished breaking up the description pages into smaller pages, hoping
that it was the size that was keeping it from working. Not so. What on earth am
I missing?

I'm a little unclear on what you meant in your second to last post;

Alright, I see the anchors. Try putting something in the links; I know an
empty anchor can cause a problem <.a name="something">

The anchors are all named. for example, the anchor that works is named vvv. I
did all of them the same way, yet that's the only one that works.... see why
i'm goin nuts? lol