tedster - 10:48 am on Jan 17, 2001 (gmt 0)

>> what factors determine which images are loaded first

The biggest factor is what browser is rendering the page. Unfortunately. No 100% insurance policies on what order things will show up when the page gets complex.

I have found one technique that does a pretty good job. I find a key chunk of text (maybe with a small inline graphic) that will be high on the page. I put that in a separate DIV, absolutely positioned and at the top of the BODY section of the HTML.

In every browser I've checked, that text comes in immediately, like in 1 second. I figure this way I can give the visitor something to look at while the header and nav bar, etc, fill in around it.