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Image Sliders

Image sliders, like lightboxes, are just some of the useful presentational tools brought about by the growth in browser technologies and javascript frameworks. If you’re looking for one you can use for your blog, I recently found three robust solutions that should fit most needs: Nivo Slider, Coin Slider, and SlideDeck. You’d be surprised how extensible yet easy–to–setup these jQuery plugins are.

Masonry: A jQuery Layout Plugin

“Masonry is a layout plugin for jQuery. Think of it as the flip side of CSS floats. Whereas floating arranges elements horizontally then vertically, Masonry arranges elements vertically then horizontally according to a grid. The result minimizes vertical gaps between elements of varying height, just like a mason fitting stones in a wall.”

YoxView

YoxView is another jQuery image viewer plugin that doesn’t look like your typical lightbox. Though there are too many lightbox options available, YoxView is among the few that have a built–in slideshow feature, which may come in handy for some sites.

jQuery Crash

Now here’s a jQuery plugin with an evil twist: jQuery Crash. With just Javascript through jQuery, this plugin will crash anyone using IE6, a not so subtle way of telling them to start using a better browser. Sick.

Uniform

Uniform supposedly helps you produce “sexy forms with jQuery.” Essentially, it is a jQuery plugin that styles form elements and provides them a consistent look. A few designs are initially available as themes and it should be fairly easy to build your own from it.

jquery-transmit

jquery-transmit is a jQuery plugin used to produce a flash–based multi–file uploader for your pages, all this quite simply achievable:

$(document).ready(function() {
                $("#transmit").transmit("http://mysite.com/upload/");
            });

Now there’s no need to dive into flash or swfupload configuration files, multi–uploaders can be as simple a few lines of code.