jQuery / Colorbox - create a separate link to open the colorbox?

Question

I'm trying to open a jQuery Colorbox from a link outside the rest of the colorbox images. So, all of the examples look like this:

<a href="image1.png" rel="group1"><img src="thumb1.png" /></a>
<a href="image2.png" rel="group1"><img src="thumb2.png" /></a>
<script>$("a[rel='group1']").colorbox();</script>

OK, that's fine, but I also need to open that colorbox from a separate link:

<a href="?"> this link should also open the colorbox </a>

What do I have to put where to do that? All of the colorbox examples just show what's in the first code block, and I'm no jQuery expert.

Answer 1

Here's a similar thing that worked for my project.

HTML

//I "display:none" the images gallery to hide them...
<div style="display:none;">
 <a href="image1.jpg" rel="example1">Grouped Photo 1</a>
 <a href="image2.jpg" rel="example2">Grouped Photo 2</a>
 <a href="image3.jpg" rel="example3">Grouped Photo 3</a>
</div>

//...then when I click on this JPG image the group of images (above) appear in a colorbox
<img src="circle1.jpg" width="147" height="149" alt="circle" class="circle1" />

Here's the JQUERY

$(document).ready(function(){

     //when i "click" on the image with a class of "circle1" it opens the "example1" group
     $('.circle1').click(function() {
        $("a[rel='example1']").colorbox({open:true});
     });

});