Pages too big on 15" monitor

jk53110 · Oct 25, 2005

I just published a website. I designed it on a 17" monitor at work. When I
view the website at home on my 15" monitor I have to use the bottom scroll
bar to see what is on the right side of each page. I thought the pages would
be automatically re-sized to fit the viewers screen. Is this true or do I
have to re-design all of the pages to fit on a 15" screen?

Kevin Spencer · Oct 25, 2005

..> I thought the pages would

be automatically re-sized to fit the viewers screen. Is this true or do I
have to re-design all of the pages to fit on a 15" screen?

None of the above.

First, what makes you think monitor screen size has anything to do with
anything? Does a 17-inch tv screen show only a portion of the image viewed
on a 27-inch tv screen?

What you're talking about is screen resolution, and it has nothing to do
with the size of the screen. It is the number of pixels (colored dots) high
and wide that are displayed on the monitor. Typical examples are 640X480,
800X600, and 1024X768.

You're also talking about HTML, not a Word document. Microsoft owns and
controls Word. Therefore, all Word documents conform to a single proprietary
standard. Microsoft did not invent the WWW, nor HTML. The positioning rules
for HTML are complicated, to say the least. You can use the original default
HTML positioning, absolute positioning (by pixels), relative positioning (by
pixels), or relative positioning (by per cent). And you can do this with
HTML or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). You can use a pretty good variety of
HTML elements to do this, such as using tables. With CSS, you can choose to
use inline styles (in the HTML tags) or style sheets in the document, or an
external style sheet. Or any combinatiion of any number of inline styles,
document style sheets, and/or external style sheets. With CSS, you can use a
large variety of HTML containers for positioning, such as divs, tables, and
just about an type of tag with an associated style, class or id.

Remember that a great set of tools does not a carpenter make.

So welcome to the wonderful world of web design. Hope you brought your
appetite for learning. You are going to need it! There are lots of free
resources on the web for learning HTML. Perhaps the following link will
help:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=HTML+Tutorial

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
A watched clock never boils.

P@tty Ayers · Oct 25, 2005

Actually, the screen resolution is not the issue either - it's the size of
the browser window.

P@tty Ayers · Oct 25, 2005

Yes, unfortunately you will need to redesign the pages.

There are two common ways to create pages which look well on a number of
different setups. One is a fixed width design: all of the page content is
placed within a table with a width of about 770 pixels. This will fill the
page for people with a browser window of about 800 x 600, and will have some
white space on the right and left for people with larger browser windows.

The other method is a "flexible" page, where all of the content is within a
table or tables (or divs) which are set to 100% width, so that the content
within flows to fill all available space. These are more difficult to build,
especially when there are a number of images involved.

Here is an article on the subject:
http://www.thepattysite.com/window_sizes1.cfm . It really helps if you
understand all of the issues involved before starting to build pages that
avoid this problem.

Hope that helps.

Steve Easton · Oct 25, 2005

Sure it does, it's a function of "both" browser window size and screen resolution.

--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
...............................with a computer

Murray · Oct 25, 2005

Actually not. The only thing that resolution does is limit the maximum
practical viewport width you can set on any given screen. Beyond that it
has no bearing on anything described in this thread. The critical (and
really, the only) factor is browser viewport width.

P@tty Ayers · Oct 25, 2005

Well, screen resolution determines the upper limit on how big the browser
window can be, so it does provide that one guideline. But a person with a
1024 x 768 resolution may be viewing your site at any of these dimensions:

1024 x 768
1000 x 600
900 x 600
770 x 550

....etc. And those are the dimensions that determine how your pages display.

The point is, knowing your users' screen resolution doesn't do a whole lot
of good, other than providing that upper limit. You need to be aware that
your pages will be displayed at many different browser window sizes, and
design them with that in mind.

Murray · Oct 25, 2005

And remember - if I start with a large enough browser viewport, I can see
how the page would behave in any smaller resolution on any smaller screen
just by resizing the viewport.

Tom · Oct 25, 2005

Joe Rohn · Oct 25, 2005

Being able to design for the almost infinite number of combinations of
window sizes a person might view in..is simply not practical. IMHO go for a
maximized window at an 800 x 600 resolution....and if all appears OK in
major browsers then you are done. While I don't have any data..my guess
would be that there are more people viewing using maximized windows at 800 x
600 then not. I understand your point of resolution being an upper
limit...but if you design for window sizes....then what are the lower
limits?

--
Joe

Microsoft MVP FrontPage

FrontPage Users Forums:
http://www.timeforweb.com/frontpage

P@tty Ayers · Oct 25, 2005

Huh? 1024 x 768 is very common on new PCs now, and isn't very large.

Murray · Oct 25, 2005

Yes - that's a good suggestion, unless you have information to the contrary.

That's what I do - 760px width....

P@tty Ayers · Oct 25, 2005

Joe Rohn said:
Being able to design for the almost infinite number of combinations of
window sizes a person might view in..is simply not practical.

It can seem a little daunting, but you definitely can design for a wide
range of sizes, anyway.

IMHO go for a maximized window at an 800 x 600 resolution....and if all
appears OK in major browsers then you are done.

That's a common approach, and a reasonable one, I agree. (I suggested it on
this thread in another post.)

While I don't have any data..my guess would be that there are more people
viewing using maximized windows at 800 x 600 then not.

It's not really accurate or safe to assume that, unfortunately. 800 x 600 is
less and less common all the time, and many people keep "Favorites Bars" or
the like open.

I understand your point of resolution being an upper limit...but if you
design for window sizes....then what are the lower limits?

Personally, on my sites, anybody with a window narrow than about 760 px is
going to have to scroll horizontally, and I think they'll live. That's my
standard.

Joe Rohn · Oct 25, 2005

P@tty Ayers said:
It's not really accurate or safe to assume that, unfortunately. 800 x 600
is less and less common all the time, and many people keep "Favorites
Bars" or the like open.

I was referring to those folks that use 800 x 600 resolution... and if they
have their windows maximized or not. I wasn't trying to state what the most
popular resolution is today. For those that still use 800 x 600 I might bet
the mortgage that more than 1/2 use maximized windows. I will still use
maximized 800 x 600 as my minimum baseline. Heck it seems like yesterday it
was 640 x 480.

--
Joe

Microsoft MVP FrontPage

FrontPage Users Forums:
http://www.timeforweb.com/frontpage

P@tty Ayers · Oct 25, 2005

Joe Rohn said:
I was referring to those folks that use 800 x 600 resolution... and if
they have their windows maximized or not. I wasn't trying to state what
the most popular resolution is today. For those that still use 800 x 600 I
might bet the mortgage that more than 1/2 use maximized windows. I will
still use maximized 800 x 600 as my minimum baseline. Heck it seems like
yesterday it was 640 x 480.

Ok, I see what you're saying. Other than those dreaded "bars" that take up a
big chunk of the browser window width (which a lot of people use), it's
probably pretty safe to design pages to look good at 800 x 600 maximized.

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Pages too big on 15" monitor

jk53110

Kevin Spencer

P@tty Ayers

P@tty Ayers

Steve Easton

Murray

P@tty Ayers

Murray

Tom

Joe Rohn

P@tty Ayers

Murray

P@tty Ayers

Joe Rohn

P@tty Ayers

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