I've just completed a very fiddly upgrade to the photo gallery software.

The only change you'll notice is that I've activated the slideshow controls. This includes convenient next/previous buttons so browsing through the gallery will be a bit less fiddly. Other than that the upgrade really only benefits me (and the developer as I had to renew my license to get the new version).

Unfortunately browsers tend to cache Javascript and CSS files very aggressively. So if you encounter any problems (eg the big photo doesn't show) just hold down the Shift key and click the Reload button. This should force a full reload of everything on the page, including the gallery files.

I have a couple of small features to add in the coming week or so, then I'll be doing a big redesign of the gallery section to allow me to show the photos quite a lot bigger. This has been frustrating me for quite a while and I'm really looking forward to being able to show photos in their full glory. The downside is that the gallery pages will take longer to load but I think it'll be worth it.

I've just finished adding index numbers to the thumbnails and main image in the galleries. Let me know if you see any problems, but you may need to shift-"refresh" again as the javascript has been modified.

If you're running IE6, please upgrade. I know you're out there... I'm getting very frustrated at having to support that browser and I'm starting to run into small issues that aren't trivial to fix. While I'll do my best to ensure everything displays OK, I will not break my balls to ensure absolute perfection.

I'm still really keen to get the new template done but I have no idea how long it'll take.

I've been busy today!

The new photo template is in place. It's really just a stripped-out version of the normal "wide" template with the left side removed and a couple of tweaks. I might fiddle with it a bit later on to see if I can add a couple of the modules that normally show on the left.

So we now have much larger photos and I'm much happier with the gallery as a result. I've gone back and updated all the previous galleries but if the images are still stuck in your browser cache they'll look a bit strange and you'll probably have to clear your cache and reload. The shift-reload trick doesn't seem to work here as the images are loaded by javascript. Any future galleries should work fine.

If you have a small screen and can't see enough, try activating full-screen mode. Below 1024x768 you're likely to have problems but that should only affect a small minority.