[thelist] DIVs, Layers, Slideshows & NS4.x

[Nick Myers]

Hi guys and gals,

I've been reading/receiving this list for the best part of a month now, and
must say that it's one of the most professional and helpful forums I've ever
come across.  You all do a great job of support the list and each other.  I
have learnt more about usability, coding and standards in a month from this
list - than I have in 6 listening to our "senior" web designers at work.

So now I have a question that will tax your intelligence, and stretch your
minds beyond normality (perhaps not :o)

I've been tasked with building a "Weather Application" for online delivery
of satellite images, and one of the requirements is to be able to (within a
single page environment) switch on and off different types of images - no
problem, I can show/hide layers easy.  My problem comes with the following
requirement, one of the layers must contain an animation (comprising of 7
JPEGs) which the user can step forward/backward through, and also play/stop
(so the user can either watch a rolling animation of the 7 images, or step
through them one-by-one).

Again I *thought* this would be simple, I load the initial image into a
layer, and use a JavaScript slideshow to control it - but for whatever
reason NS4.x doesn't like it - I've tried 6 different slide show scripts -
and they all work great on IE4.x and upwards - and is NS6 - but it's a no go
for NS4.x - it just ignores them and the first image never changes.

So my question is this, how would you very experienced, and very
knowledgeable group of people go about solving this problem?  The ideal
answer would be a way that allows a single page to contain many layers (all
hidden to begin with) that can be switched on and off as required, but that
also allows an element of control over either a javascripted Slideshow, or
perhaps control over layers on a timed basis??

I have reached the end of my own skillset and knowledge, and so am reaching
out a hand in the hope that someone will grasp it and say *no! this is how
you do it*

TIA

Nick