Hi all - I've been building a site for a client, who is using a 1650x1050 resolution in his office, and the site breaks in it. It works fine in IE6, IE7 and Firefox in 1280 x 800 and smaller. I never even checked in that resolution, as frankly, it didn't occur to me. How common is this resolution? Do I need to find a way to check it consistently? And if so, is there a way to do it without buying a separate monitor? (My laptop maxes out at 1280 x 800) TIA!

Both of my monitors have a resolution greater than 1280 x 800, and I know all of my peers' laptops are at 1600 x 1200. I'd say its not that uncommon for people who are technically adept.

this is not a common one, this is sure...
try to make sites for 1024x768... and, if you can 800x600 [not so common]

Jess I'm not sure how common that specific size is, but you should try to make sure your site looks good in as many as is realistically possible. That doesn't mean it has to look perfect at every resolution, but you should consider how it will look.

My monitor is 1920 x 1200. Larger resolution monitors are becoming more common.

You can check how your site looks in different browsers and at different resolutions using a site like Browser Shots. There are other sites offering a similar service. There's a sticky thread in the HTML forums here listing quite a few.

Y'all are so young!! .. 1900x1200.. I'd go blind trying to read at that resolution !!

Hi,

IMO, you should set a resolution that will be more 'accessible' to most visitors - 1024x768 perhaps?

I use 1920x1200. My second attached monitor is 1280x1024. If you make a site with absolute widths you may run into issues if you make it too small. I see a big gap on the side of many sites. As Steven suggested, try Browser Shots.

I think my old laptop's resolution was 1600x1050... not 1650x1050.

Thanks everyone. Does anyone know of an emulator that uses the higher widths? I tried using the emulators suggested in the earlier posts, and they only go up to 1600 px wide. Otherwise, it looks like I will have to invest in a separate monitor...

OK - continuing on with this problem. Can anyone with a VERY wide screen (ie: higher than 1600 wide) volunteer to help me troubleshoot this? If you can spare a little time for texting using MSNIM or AOLIM or YahooIM so we can go back and forth as I try to fix the problem, it would be greatly, greatly appreciated. I narrowed the "h1#name" field to 200 from 400, so I'm hoping that this will solve it. I'm really confused as to why it does this in a HIGHER resolution in IE and Opera, but not in the lower resolutions (1024, 1280, 1600) This is the screen shot that my client sent.

The url is here: http://www.jessweiss.com/tt/index1.html

TIA!

ETA - Yes, I'm aware of the HUGE amount of space around the content. But, the client doesn't want to redo his back pages and they are in 800x600. What can you do??

This is why I always set font-size in em instead of px, when possible. Using proportional fonts and ensuring that layouts work across different font size settings is important.

FF and IE6 look fine to me at 1920x1200 and lower

Originally Posted by LadynRed

Y'all are so young!! .. 1900x1200.. I'd go blind trying to read at that resolution !!

I use 1900x1200 on each monitor, and have little patience for web sites that don't work at this resolution, and I'm in my mid 40s. I've got FireFox set up to never allow any site to change my browser window.

All those extra pixels to make letters out of makes them more crisp and more readable. Maybe you're loosing your eye site from using ancient monitor technology?

Maybe you're loosing your eye site from using ancient monitor technology?

That has nothing to do with it, John. My eyesight is due to normal aging and genetics.. I'm OLDER than you ! Presbyopia can't be fixed and my bi-focals don't magnify miniscule text

Thank God someone is older than me! My back has been telling me I'm older than time itself.

For me, size of text is one important thing, and the crispness is another. Using more pixels to, say, make a letter o round, is a big help. Having a thicker black letter against the white background is a tremendous help. My eye doctor laughed at me when I told him my observation, and said "Of course contrast is important!"

It's hard for people to make a fluid width layout when using a tool such as Dreamweaver.

I make my sites with a fluid layout test in various resolutions.

Thank God someone is older than me!

ROFL !
I have a b'day in 3 weeks too...

OK here is the latest update -

First of all, and FWIW, I don't use Dreamweaver. I code by hand.

I did however, used fixed widths at the request of my client. All of his back end pages were coded - not by me - in tables, and those are fixed at 785 px - he wants all the screens to match. It wasn't the resolution that made the site break - it was increasing the size of the font in the higher resolution that made the site break - as has been suggested. I'm reworking the site now and hopefully, I'll be able to do something that gives him the fixed width that he wants along with the flexibility to have increased font sizes. Not exactly sure how I will do it, but when there is a will, I hope, there's a way...

Thanks for everyone's help. It is much appreciated.

Are you *sure* it's 1650x1050? That just doesn't sound right.

I know - I thought that sounded weird too. But, that's what the man said. I duplicated the picture he sent me, so I'm pretty sure I've targeted the problem. I adjusted some the widths I'm using to flexible widths using percentages within a fixed width framework of the general page, and while it doesn't keep the design from breaking completely, it makes it "less broken" so that unless the font size selected is huge, the design overall doesn't break. I have to chat with him and discuss what his preferences are. Hopefully we will be able to move on soon.