HTML
<a id="selector" href="#">My event trigger</a>
<!-- put the the overlay below before closing </body> the end of the page -->
<div class="overlayOuter">
<div class="overlayInner">
<!-- external content to be loaded here -->
</div>
</div>
CSS
.overlayOuter{
background:#000;
opacity:0.7;
display:none;
height:100%;
left:0;
position:absolute;
top:0;
width:100%;
z-index:100001;
}
.overlayInner{
position:absolute;
top:40%;/*or whatever*/
left:40% /*or whatever*/
width:500px;
z-index:100001;
}
JS
$("a#selector").live("click", function(){
$(".overlayInner").load("externalPage.html",
// the following is the callback
function(){$(".overlayOuter").fadeIn(300); })
});