I'm completely new to using jquery so please bare with me.

I have a client who wants an image with a reasonably complicated arrangement of links. I was planning on using an image map to create the links and jquery for the modal content boxes. The image map works well but I'm having trouble with the modal windows. Many that I've tried don't work because they use divs that won't display over an image or I can't open them from the image map links.

My first attempt was using ThickBox. This worked well but I had trouble customizing the box. I need to create a transparent window with a background image. I’m also concerned about using something that is no longer supported.

Second attempt was from a tutorial found here. This has the transparency and background image just like I’m looking for (see the Sticky Note demo) but pops up below the image map.

Attempt number three I used Fancybox. This seem to work pretty well but took some hacking to turn off shadows and make transparency etc work only to find it didn’t work so well in IE.

Finally went back to hacking ThickBox. I manage to find a modified version that has transparency. It works but I’m not confident in its stability.

So basically I’m looking for a modal widow that can be set to transparent, has a background image, and can be launched from an image map link.