Screen resolutions (!?)

[Bobby Peru]

Hi,

I'm designing a simple html site in frames on my computer,
which runs with a resolution of 1024 x 768.

I tried viewing the pages on my fathers laptop, which runs with a resolution of 800 x 600, and the layout was messed up because of the low resolution!

I guess I should have anticipated this... but how do you normally overcome this problem?

Is there a standard resolution which you optimize your page for and, i.e., ignore the lower resolutions?

Or do you just design several versions for different resolutions?

Any ideas and/or opinions are very welcome...

thanks!

[Vladdy]

Originally posted by Bobby Peru
I'm designing a simple html site in frames on my computer,

This is mistake #1
Originally posted by Bobby Peru
which runs with a resolution of 1024 x 768.
This is mistake #2

Solution: design site so that is adjusts to whatever browser window size is.

[Nicodemas]

Really, there is no way to make your pages appear the same on all computers. I've noted some hints to at least get your pages close to looking the same below:

#1 - Use percentages (%) instead of pixels when you define an object's height and width. By using percentages, you are telling the browser how wide/high something should be instead of how wide/high it will be.

#2 - Try to shoot for a normal, healthy look at 1024x768. Seems to be a going standard these days.

#3 - If you must use positioning, use relative positioning instead of absolute.

#4 - Don't use backgrounds that are going to tile. By default, they all will. There is code out there that can stop that from happening. Tiling backgrounds are, in general, not very attractive when its easy to see. Not always, but sometimes.

[Bobby Peru]

thanks,

I'll try messing with the percentage thing first off

[IxxI]

Originally posted by Vladdy
This is mistake #1

Not necessarily. I've written a web page in frames which resizes itself depending upon the users screen resolution.
And it works fine...

IxxI

[Vladdy]

Using frames is a mistake for a bunch of other reasons.

[Nicodemas]

Using frames is a mistake for a bunch of other reasons.

Such as?

[Vladdy]

http://webreference.com/html/tutorial14/
http://webreference.com/html/tutorial15/

[IxxI]

Most of the problems mentioned there, however, can be solved by a simple bit of code to redirect whatever page they are trying to view out of a frame, to that page in the frameset. And others seem to be down to the "what if you forget to put a target in". What happens if you forget to put a link in where there should be one outside frames? That's just assuming that those who use frames are more likely to be bad coders than those who don't - which isn't necessarily true and an over generalisation. And to be quite honest having the title bar change with each page is as unecessary as it is a poor arguement for not using frames. I'm not saying that there aren't any problems with using frames - as there obviously are. But there are far worse crimes to commit than using frames and if you are intelligent and thoughtful most if not all of those problems can be ironed out. I'm just saying that they shouldn't be dismissed out of hand as a bad thing.

IxxI

[Vladdy]

They should be dismissed, because they break the structure of the document. Anything you do with frames you can do without them. And not having title bar change when going from page to page is a poor excuse of a poor design.

[Damien]

As Nicodemas said "Try to shoot for a normal, healthy look at 1024x768. Seems to be a going standard these days"
have a look at this poll bt internet.com http://cws.internet.com/polls/poll3.html

If you don't want to play around with percentages build the site in 800 X 600 and centre it on the screen.

[pyro]

Or, instead of looking at a poll, you could look at stats: http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2003/March/res.php

[IxxI]

Originally posted by Vladdy
And not having title bar change when going from page to page is a poor excuse of a poor design.

So are you saying having the title bar change as you change pages is that important?! Would you be all that miffed if the title for all these forums was Web Developer Forum and it didn't change? Also if you're writing a website for people to view pdfs and technical drawings in a window its quite useful to have a navigation pane just so they can flip from drawing to drawing with ease.]

IxxI

[Vladdy]

I'm saying that keeping a title bar from reloading is not worth breaking a document structure. I do not care if the title bar changes when a new content is being delivered. You waste more bandwidth on a separate HTTP request than having a
<div id="banner"> Banner Text </div> in your document.
As far as having common navigation for pdf documents and such you accomplish it by using an <iframe> or better yet <object> so that the document hierarchy is preserved.

[IxxI]

Fair enough. You win!!
Where did you learn the stuff you used for programming your website (not the one that you link to in your name, but the one that you gave as an address for a guestbook question at some point earlier.)
The problem I have is that until january of this year I didn't even know what HTML was, so I'm really quite a newbie to the web developer scene and I'd really like to learn more, but not sure where, how, or from what to learn it. I was wondering if you had any suggestions?

IxxI

[Vladdy]

I have not updated my old web site in awhile - been working on the new one which will represent a business my partner and I formed. The layout is almost done (you are welcome to preview it at: http://www.klproductions.com/home.html ) and we are trying to finish the content while working on a few other projects.
As far as learning HTML I suggest the following:
1. Go through this tutorial for the basics, but keep in mind that is relatively old: http://webreference.com/html/tutorials/
2. Read W3C specs cover to cover!!!
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/ this is your stepping stone to
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/ and then through
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-modularization/ to
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/ which is the future
Do not forget about:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/
3. When you are ready to include some client side scripting read these:
http://devedge.netscape.com/library/manuals/2000/javascript/1.5/guide/
http://devedge.netscape.com/library/manuals/2000/javascript/1.5/reference/
4. And then go back to W3C to learn the correct way of manipulating DOM (stick with level 2 as level 3 is still only on paper):
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Core-20001113/ start with core
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-DOM-Level-2-HTML-20030109/ then go to HTML related objects
http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Events/ and finally events which are still not implemented by M$ IE

[IxxI]

Thanks,
I will do that. I'm suitably wowed by your website - the thing I liked about your old one (and now this one) is the way that when you've selected a link on the home page (say contact) the box with the info in then has the physical link to that link (by the fact that it turns white and the border on its right hand side does also). How do you do that? I will start reading right away.
Thanks again,

IxxI

[Vladdy]

Originally posted by IxxI
Thanks,
I will do that. I'm suitably wowed by your website - the thing I liked about your old one (and now this one) is the way that when you've selected a link on the home page (say contact) the box with the info in then has the physical link to that link (by the fact that it turns white and the border on its right hand side does also). How do you do that?
IxxI
Position active menu item which has no right border with 1 pixel (border width) overlap over the content. See CSS class definitions.