NextGEN Gallery Optimizer includes and automatically integrates a unique, enhanced version of the attractive Fancybox lightbox with NextGEN Gallery, so you can display your images in style.

Improving upon the original GPL Fancybox script v1.3.4 with many enhancements, Optimizer's Fancybox also includes 1-click integration with NextGEN Gallery for instant setup, and the required scripts and styles are only loaded as needed, helping to speed up your site.

Optimizer's Enhanced Fancybox Lightbox features over two years worth of improvements and compatibility fixes within the WordPress and NextGEN environment.

Here's a list of some of the more important features and improvements...

1-click integration
Just activate and you’re set. Works with NextGEN Gallery 2.0, NextGEN Legacy and NextCellent Gallery.

Speeds up your site
Lightbox scripts and styles are loaded only as needed, speeding up your site’s page load times.

Responsive (exclusive to Pro)
Automatically resizes when your visitors resize their browser window.

Works in IE 6+
Compatible with all major browsers inc. Chrome, Safari, Opera, Firefox & Internet Explorer.

Refined alignment
Factors in space for single line titles during Fancybox's image size calculations, for perfect vertical alignment.

jQuery v1.9/10 ready
Works without jQuery migrate, so you can safely deregister it for further optimization.

Fewer requests
Loads in two HTTP requests instead of four, for even faster page loads. *Compared to the default NextGEN 2.0 lightbox.

Fully namespaced
Prevents potential naming collisions, for better compatibility with themes and other plugins.

AJAX pagination
Compatible with AJAX pagination in NextGEN 2.0, NextGEN Legacy and NextCellent Gallery (no longer need to use the Shutter effect).

If you haven't already, get yourself a copy of Optimizer Pro, upload it to your site at Plugins -> Add New -> Upload, and activate it on your plugins page. See the Installation Guide for more.

Optimizer's Enhanced Fancybox Lightbox is automatically installed and selected upon plugin activation, so no further steps are required to start displaying your galleries in style.

If you'd like to customize the lightbox's appearance however, simply navigate to Optimizer's settings page at Settings -> NextGEN Gallery Optimizer Pro, and click the button for Optimizer's new Dynamic Fancybox Settings Interface.

To activate Optimizer's Enhanced Fancybox lightbox (not required on initial install).

1. Navigate to Settings -> NextGEN Gallery Optimizer Pro
2. Switch on the Fancybox checkbox.
3. Click Save Options.

Alternatively, Optimizer's Enhanced Fancybox lightbox can also be activated by selecting it in NextGEN's lightbox effects menu at Gallery -> Options -> Effects (NextGEN Legacy/NextCellent Gallery) or Gallery -> Other Options -> Lightbox Effects (NextGEN 2.0)

If you're a developer, and require a customization not currently available in Optimizer's Dynamic Fancybox Settings Interface, feel free to dive into the lightbox's CSS and JS files to get the look and/or functionality you're after.

The two files you'll need in Optimizer Pro v2.0 are as follows:
1. nextgen-gallery-optimizer-pro/fancybox/nggopro.jquery.fancybox-1.3.4.css
2. nextgen-gallery-optimizer-pro/fancybox/nggopro.jquery.fancybox-1.3.4.pack.js

Please note: Any manual changes to Optimizer's files will be overwritten in subsequent updates, so you'll need to keep backups of your changes.

If you're sure Fancybox is activated on Optimizer's settings page, and the lightbox still won't display using the "Use WordPress jQuery [greater compatibility]" setting, it's highly likely you have a conflict caused by two or more instances of jQuery loading on the same page. This is typically due to jQuery calls having been hard-coded into your theme.

Please inspect your theme's files (header.php and footer.php in particular) for lines including jquery.js or jquery.min.js, and either comment them out, or remove them altogether.

Additionally, make sure you have wp_head(); in your theme's header.php file. It will usually be right before the closing head tag, and is an essential hook for plugins such as Optimizer to be able to load the necessary scripts and styles.

This is usually due to having more than one lightbox installed on your site. Please check if your theme is using a built-in lightbox feature, and if you're using another lightbox plugin in addition to Optimizer.

If the extra lightbox is coming from another plugin, look for an option on its settings page to turn it off, or simply deactivate the plugin. If it's embedded in your theme, there may be an option to turn it off also, otherwise please contact your theme's developer for code you can use to deregister the lightbox's scripts and styles.

Note: In many themes, lightbox scripts and styles are hard-coded into the header.php file, and therefore won't be able to be deregistered programmatically through WordPress. In this situation, the best way to remove them is to edit your header.php file, either commenting out the unwanted scripts, or removing them altogether. If you still want them to load, but only on certain pages, the solution is to wrap them in conditional tags so they don't load on every page of your site. Please see the Conditional Tags page in the WordPress codex for more.

Optimizer's Enhanced Fancybox is an attractive modal lightbox that enables you to quickly and easily display your NextGEN galleries in style. If however, you've uploaded very large images in NextGEN Gallery, you may notice it takes a while for each image to load in the lightbox. This is not caused by the lightbox itself, and will occur even if you load your images in a new browser window. Simply, the larger the image file size, the longer it takes to reach your browser. The solution is to optimize your images for the web.

One way to do this right in NextGEN (v2.0) is to navigate to Gallery --> Other Options --> Image Options and select the "Automatically resize images after upload" option. Below that, you'll be able to select optimal image dimensions to suit your project, which will reduce the file sizes of your images when you re-upload them. The default is 800 x 600px. In NextGEN Legacy / NextCellent Gallery, this option is available as a checkbox on the file upload page.

The best solution however, is to downsize and compress your images in an image editing program such as Photoshop or Gimp before uploading them to NextGEN Gallery. Additionally, for further optimization before upload, you may like to run your images through Yahoo's lossless image optimization tool Smush.it.