I'm told that 800x600 is the best size to deal with, but when I draw a table that size to place my website it doesn't fit on my screen, which is 17 inch monitor. I designed a site within a table 600 wide and it just fits on my screen. When I look at it in the internet cafe, the site appears in the top left quadrant of the screen. Why is this? Please help this novice!

any ideas greatly appreciated
Dan

it's not the monitor size, It's the screen resolution. Sounds like your resolution is set on 648x480

Thanks for replying. I checked this out, my resolution is 800x600 but most internet cafes I've seen are 1024x768. My layout looks good in 800x600 but naff in the higher resolution. I'm currently laying it out in a table that is 640 by 400 pixels fixed ratio.

How can you get a page to look the same in both resolutions using tables?

I apprecitate your input a lot

Make the width of the table 100% - it will expand to fit the browser size.

i like 800*600 :-)

i like 800*600 :-)

Remember though that the majority of your users probably don't...

Resolution is something to consider when designing a site, but it shouldn't be what you base your design around. Use a liquid layout and that way you cater for everyone.

Minaki ... i don't exactly agree with you ....

the liquid or fixed ... depends all on the taste and on the type of website.

imagine for one minute that you would only have an exact amount of text on one page ... if you made it liquid it would seem like 2 or 3 rows on a 1280x... resolution ... while with fixed sizes it would look exactly as you want it to.

no layout is better than the other ... each suits a ceratin purpose.

With liquid deigns, on a high resolution, the spare space is divided equally around the parts of the page, therefore it is less noticeable. You get a bit of space at the bottom if you don't have a huge ammount of content but that is much much less noticeable than huge empty areas at the sides of the page. Besides, not all users have their browser windows maximized - specially not on higher resolutions (I know I don't always).

Minaki, i still don't believe that one type of design is better than the other ...

and i am sure there are a lot of other people out there that know a great deal about webdesign and still chose the empty parts on the sides . take a look at a list apart ... it was the first to come to mind.

it's all reduced to taste

Liquid designs can be distinctly unfriendly when used on text heavy pages. If the user has a high resolution the lines become very long and difficult to read, forcing the viewer to reduce their browser window size. Having the text spread out in this way can also reduce the impact of your "calls to action" and therefore directly affect your conversion rate.

800x600 centred layout is a good one from a marketing point of view as it concentrates the users view point into the so called "golden triangle" where the average user can simply scan the page and see the points that you have placed to grab their attention.

All types of design and layout have their pros and cons. it simply comes down to knowing your target audience and what is the best for your market place.

There's some good points, but still:

- Just cos ALA do it, who says ALA are the best designers? I don't really like the ALA site. Looks like a tiny box in the middle of my screen.
- There's other ways to breal up long lines to make it easier to read - highlighting key words, adding images, etc.
- It's all about letting the user decide - not forceing them. With a liquid layout, the user can decide how big they want the view area, and how many words per line there is. The majority of people with large screens and high resolutions are probably well used to what long lines of text look like, they know how to resize their browser window, and most of them probably won't have it maximized by default anyway if they don't like reading long lines (I'm using a 21in monitor at 1600x1200 and the browser window is at about 2/3rds of the screen area) By fixing your site at 800x600, your forcing your user to view a static page with a fixed number of WPL. If they don't like it, they can't change it. With a liquid layout, they can.

Minaki ... nobody is saying ALA is the best, nobody is saying fluid is bad.
all I and chrishirst are saying is that each one fits a certain need. none is better none is worse in general.

if we were all talking about a certain website we could reach a coclusion which layout would be better.
i urge you reconsider the "fixed width layout is bad" idea and try to see our points of view.

and in my opinion you base your theories on too many ifs and too many personal opinions regarding the sentiments and taste of the public. you can't know that. Do you know each and every individual that is going to visit Dan Bowley's site, so that you can say "the majority of your users probably don't" ?

this is a quote from chrishirst's post that is the most important:

All types of design and layout have their pros and cons. it simply comes down to knowing your target audience and what is the best for your market place.

it just so happens for example that if Dan Bowley's website were centered on the page i would certainly find it very nice.

I have found that having a fluid layout may look cool, as it moves around when you resize....However this leads to serious problems since your layout may look nice in one set way and like garbage in another view....Im pretty sure this is why we all have scroll bars in our applications (just about EVERY application has scrollbars...from AutoCad to MS Paint)....

IMHO all designs and types of designs have a place and to simply just say no to one is like telling an artist they can only use pastels....Why limit yourself to one type of design? do you limit yourself to one type of anything, will you always drive one type of car, always wear one type of shirt, always eat one type of food, no of course you wouldnt so why would you only design websites in one way and only one way.....

Minaki you make good points, but so does OmuCuSucu and chrishirst

Just my opnion

you have a box of tools, dont just use the adjustable wrench....ha, now thats funny think about it....

Good post CasaPages. that was the point i was trying to make, but you made sound like literature

anyway, back to Dan Bowley's site ... i for one like his site as it is ... viewed it in firefox @ 1152x864 and i have to say that even if it was only the left upper corner of the screen i enjoyed the design. if it were in the "Website Review and Suggestions" forum, i'd prolly give it a 8,5 - 9 (if he'd remove the underlines from the links would be even better for my taste).