I have a site which displays articles, reports and charts. The problem I have is that I need all that real estate on the page to display the data!

However, the site needs a makeover and I'm looking at some templates but they all seem to be set to 742 width.

With this 1024 x 768 monitor the set 742 width template will be centred in the middle of the screen with an inch or two blank border on each side. Whilst it looks nice, it is not that practical for the reports.

I do like the look of it though, so I'm wondering about having the homepage in this format but then filling out the page 100% for the reports.

I think it may confuse users though.

Any recommendations?

BTW, should I be detecting different resolutions and then returning a different sized page depending on what the users settings are?

If you've got a lot of data then you might want to use 100% yes.
Although, at 800x600 this still wont be much more than 770ish.
Depends who you are targetting user wise. If you are targetting people using 800x600 then you cant really have content wider than 770pixels.
742px is a bit narrow IMO.

Not really targetting a specific group - just that ideally the site is best viewed in 1024 due to the size of the reports.

BTW, I found some stats which show the following:

54% 1024x768
28% 800x600
10% 1280x1024
03% 1152x864
01% 640x480
<1% 1600x1200

I have to say that those stats are very bizzare. Nowdays id presume that most people go for 1280x1024 due to it being small and fit more on. Im on that setting and I love it. doing a website in it makes life much easier as 50% site looks very nice. Anyone under 800x600 I would say to them if your on a fast computer change your setting

heh eh im on 800x600. Still cant afford to upgrade my system...

Originally Posted by Frank Rizzo

Not really targetting a specific group - just that ideally the site is best viewed in 1024 due to the size of the reports.

BTW, I found some stats which show the following:

54% 1024x768
28% 800x600
10% 1280x1024
03% 1152x864
01% 640x480
<1% 1600x1200

Where are those from mate?
It depends really on who is being used in the sample, i.e. Graphic designers will probably have a higher proportion of expensive hi res screens than average on the web.

I just decided to do a Google search on "Resoultion Stats". The results I came up were very intresting. 1024x768 in most stats is the highest with 800x600 just coming below...Very suprising...

Those stats were for Feb 2005. More upto date here:

http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2005/April/res.php