How to Open Galleries Direct to Pro Lightbox

When a visitor clicks a gallery inside an album, NextGEN normally opens that gallery’s page first. The visitor then has to click a thumbnail to see the lightbox. With Open gallery in Pro Lightbox turned on, clicking a gallery in the album opens its images in the Pro Lightbox right away.

Before You Start

You need:

• Imagely Plus, Pro or Ultra. The Pro Lightbox isn’t part of the free plugin or Imagely Starter.
• An album with galleries in it. If you don’t have one yet, create your galleries and then add them to an album.

This feature only works on galleries inside the album. Sub-albums still open as a page.

Step 1: Set Your Lightbox to Pro Lightbox

1. Go to Imagely > Settings.
2. Click the Lightbox Effects tab.
3. Set Lightbox Library to Pro Lightbox. The setting saves automatically.

The album option has no effect with any other lightbox.

Step 2: Turn On “Open gallery in Pro Lightbox” for Your Album

1. Go to Imagely > Albums.
2. Click the name of your album to open it.
3. Click Next step, or click 02 Settings at the top, to open the album’s display settings.
4. Under Choose Layout, pick the album layout you want (for example, Compact Album or Grid Album).
5. Under Customize Album Look, turn on Open gallery in Pro Lightbox.

6. Click Update to save the album.

When the switch is on, the Display galleries as option goes away. That’s expected, since galleries now open in the lightbox instead of on their own page.

This setting belongs to the album, so it applies on every page where you show that album.

Step 3: Add the Album to a Page

If the album is already on a page, you’re done. Visit the page and click a gallery to test it.

To add it to a new page:

1. Open the page in the WordPress editor.
2. Click the + button and add the Imagely block.
3. Choose the Album tab, then select your album.
4. Click Publish (or Update if the page already exists).

You can also use the album’s shortcode, for example:

[imagely album="5"]

Replace 5 with your album’s ID, which you can find in the ID column under Imagely > Albums.

See an Example of This Feature

Weddings

12 Photos

People

12 Photos

Landscapes

12 Photos

Landscapes 2

12 Photos

Weddings 2

12 Photos

People 2

12 Photos