How much is too much?

I am building an online portfolio using the show/hide layers tecnique. In the Archive section, I have hidden all the layers so that you have to click on an images corresponding number to get that image to appear in the display box (The display box isn't huge). My question is that how do you know if the page will be too big to load? Do you think a page that has 50 images (the ones that appear in the display box and load behind the scenes) is too much to put on one page? I have tested it using the preview button and it works fine. IS THIS HOW FAST IT WILL LOAD WHEN I UPLOAD IT TO THE INTERNET? Also, does having a ton of layers make the file size larger (the layers themselves, not the images)? I am using the show/hide layers tecnique b/c I don't want to have to load new pages every time the user clicks on one of the thumbnails. Is this feasible or am I just crazy? Thank you in advance for your help.

Try not to think in terms of number of images. 50 images that were all 1K
each would be fine. 50 images that are 20K each would be way too much. The
better limit is how many kB are there in the entire page. I would guess that
50 images is going to be too much. When I was learning to make web pages a
year and a half ago I asked my lecturer this question and their suggestion
was to limit pages to 70 k each. These days I push that limit quite a bit
because I figure more people are getting broad band and faster modems. I'd
still probably try and keep you portfolio pages to under 150K. Remember that
repeated images do not have to be loaded so if you put one image in ten
times only count it once toward your limit.
When you upload the page to the internet it will DEFINATELY NOT load as fast
as it does when you just hit preview from your machine. This is because when
you hit preview you don't have to wait for any of the images to load. They
are already there on your machine. On the internet you will have to wait for
the images to load from the net before you view them.
I don't think a ton of layers in themselves would make a page load much
slower but it's probably harder for you to work with.
You say that you don't want to have to load new pages every time the user
clicks on one of the thumbnails. I wouldn't worry to much about this. The
basic page layout and framework of your page ( your nav buttons etc) will
reload very quickly from page to page because the will have already been
loaded before and will be in the user's cache - there will probably be a
quick disappear/reappear flash but this would be much more preferable to
loading 50 images at once.

Hope this helps.
Danielle

in article beip0r$3de$1 (AT) forums (DOT) macromedia.com, ultimaterazz at
webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com wrote on 10/7/03 2:11 PM:

I am building an online portfolio using the show/hide layers tecnique. In the
Archive section, I have hidden all the layers so that you have to click on an
images corresponding number to get that image to appear in the display box
(The display box isn't huge). My question is that how do you know if the page
will be too big to load? Do you think a page that has 50 images (the ones that
appear in the display box and load behind the scenes) is too much to put on
one page? I have tested it using the preview button and it works fine. IS THIS
HOW FAST IT WILL LOAD WHEN I UPLOAD IT TO THE INTERNET? Also, does having a
ton of layers make the file size larger (the layers themselves, not the
images)? I am using the show/hide layers tecnique b/c I don't want to have to
load new pages every time the user clicks on one of the thumbnails. Is this
feasible or am I just crazy? Thank you in advance for your help.

I am using the show/hide layers tecnique b/c I don't want to have to load
new pages every time the user clicks on one of the thumbnails.

As you are aware, using Show/Hide Layers will download all images in a
single page load which means you have to be conscious of the aggregate size
of all images for the page to download quickly.

Using the free ShowPic extension from Project Seven
http://www.projectseven.com/extensions/info/show_pic/index.htm
means you can download just your Archive page and nothing else (and perhaps
a single image into your display box so visitors get the gist of what's on
offer).

As the visitor clicks the thumbnails (or in your case, the image number),
the ShowPic extension (instead of Show/Hide layers) can be fired which
downloads only the requested image each time the thumbnail is clicked. The
Archive page itself does not reload - just the requested image downloads
into the display box on the Archive page.

I have used this method, in conjunction with PVII's Geewiz commercial
scroller extension, here :
http://www.leannehoad.com.au/weddingphotos.htm

--
Regards

John Waller

Ultimate:

50K total weight is nearly too much. The target is to present engaging
content to the viewer in 10 seconds or less. On a 56k dialup, this means
that the total download weight of your page (including all images,
externally linked javascript, CSS, applets, background images, etc.) must be
40-45k.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"ultimaterazz" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

I am building an online portfolio using the show/hide layers tecnique. In
the Archive section, I have hidden all the