The Bermuda Rectangle

I should begin with the caveat that this may sound like another one of those whiny, Mac-type "I'm sniveling because I chose the wrong platform" woes, but in actuality I will offer a simple bit of advice that will greatly benefit sites that you design, whether they're created on the Mac or a PC.

By now you're most likely scratching your head wondering what the Bermuda Rectangle has to do with Web design?

The existence of its three-sided sibling, the Bermuda Triangle (alternately: Limbo of the Lost, the Twilight Zone, Hoodoo Sea, or the Devil's Triangle), is predicated upon whether or not you believe that a triangular area of the Atlantic Ocean bordered by Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. is home to bizarre happenings--apparently first documented when Christopher Columbus sailed on his voyage of conquest in 1492 when his compass went haywire and the crew saw weird lights in the sky.

The Bermuda Rectangle, a far smaller area, is located at the far right of your browser window. The happenings here are far less bizarre, and the tangibility of its existence is predicated upon what platform a client uses to view the Web; its happenings are far less bizarre.

The frame to the left of this column of text is 180 pixels. This column of text is within a table cell whose width has been specified at 280 pixels. The table cell containing the image of the shark fin to the right is 135 pixels. These three elements represent the typical Netscape scenario. The default Netscape browser will draw at approximately 465 pixels on a Mac and approximately 600 on a PC. That leaves roughly 135 pixels in limbo so to speak. Someone viewing the contents of the browser window without having resized it would not be able to see the image on the right.

So it's only an image of a shark swimming toward the text column, but what if this were your navigational elements, etc.? Yes, there will be an indication that the page is wider with the scroll bar located at the bottom of the page, but this may not be immediately apparent to the novice.

What can you do? Resize your browser window to see what's viewable, both from a Mac perspective and that of a PC.

You should ensure that all your key information and navigational systems have not slipped into the Bermuda Rectangle. Surfers will most likely have to resize their browser window at some point, but if they can come to a site and see a button or link to their desired destination without having to resize at this point, you will save them some frustration. Leave that to the next site . . .