A
Anthony Giorgianni
Hello All. Sorry about the length of this. My questions are at the end.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend this week and was wondering
what people here do and how to set the width of Web pages during design:
While showing my friend how to build a Web site, I said the best approach is
to build a site at a width that it fits into IE (and other browsers too)
with the favorites/history pane open. That way, I explained, you make sure
the page will appear correctly when visitors view the page with the
favorites/history panes open. I told her that working the other way -
building the page at the full width of the IE window with the favorites or
history pane closed - takes the chance the page will not compress properly
if someone who visits the sites has his or her favorites or history pane
open.
To demonstrate, I took her to other Web sites. Many, if not most, were
designed so that, if you close the favorites or history pane, the page will
expand but have empty gaps on either or both sides of the text and photos
that equal the space where the favorites/history pane would be. See
http://www.cbs.com/. But in other cases, the width of the content is able to
grow to use the entire screen. See www.excite.com
The Microsoft sites were very interesting: When you close the favorites and
history pane on those, three things can happen: on some pages, the content
expands to fill the entire screen. On other, gaps remain. And in some cases
BOTH happen: most of the content remains at the width of the IE window with
the favorites pane open but tabs at the top of the page with links to other
pages are the width of the entire screen. See http://www.microsoft.com/ or
http://www.msn.com/
Furthermore, my friend's view is that hardly anyone keeps their favorites
pane open as default. I found that interesting, because I always leave mine
open, figuring it is easier that way and that that is probably the optimum
(design) width for the page anyway (I am using a 15-inch laptop LCD at
1024*268 - though I'm not sure that matters).
So my questions:
Do most people leave the pane open or run with a full size IE screen? Does
anyone know?
For those who really know Web building, what determines whether the page
content can expand to fill in the space when you close the favorites pane or
whether all the content will remain the width of an IE window with the
favorite and history pane open?
Do Web designers design with the narrower width in mind?
Thanks.
--
Regards,
Anthony Giorgianni
(I prefer that you reply by posting back to the newsgroup. If you must
email: remove "killspam" from reply address. This email address will be
valid for a short time only.)
I had an interesting discussion with a friend this week and was wondering
what people here do and how to set the width of Web pages during design:
While showing my friend how to build a Web site, I said the best approach is
to build a site at a width that it fits into IE (and other browsers too)
with the favorites/history pane open. That way, I explained, you make sure
the page will appear correctly when visitors view the page with the
favorites/history panes open. I told her that working the other way -
building the page at the full width of the IE window with the favorites or
history pane closed - takes the chance the page will not compress properly
if someone who visits the sites has his or her favorites or history pane
open.
To demonstrate, I took her to other Web sites. Many, if not most, were
designed so that, if you close the favorites or history pane, the page will
expand but have empty gaps on either or both sides of the text and photos
that equal the space where the favorites/history pane would be. See
http://www.cbs.com/. But in other cases, the width of the content is able to
grow to use the entire screen. See www.excite.com
The Microsoft sites were very interesting: When you close the favorites and
history pane on those, three things can happen: on some pages, the content
expands to fill the entire screen. On other, gaps remain. And in some cases
BOTH happen: most of the content remains at the width of the IE window with
the favorites pane open but tabs at the top of the page with links to other
pages are the width of the entire screen. See http://www.microsoft.com/ or
http://www.msn.com/
Furthermore, my friend's view is that hardly anyone keeps their favorites
pane open as default. I found that interesting, because I always leave mine
open, figuring it is easier that way and that that is probably the optimum
(design) width for the page anyway (I am using a 15-inch laptop LCD at
1024*268 - though I'm not sure that matters).
So my questions:
Do most people leave the pane open or run with a full size IE screen? Does
anyone know?
For those who really know Web building, what determines whether the page
content can expand to fill in the space when you close the favorites pane or
whether all the content will remain the width of an IE window with the
favorite and history pane open?
Do Web designers design with the narrower width in mind?
Thanks.
--
Regards,
Anthony Giorgianni
(I prefer that you reply by posting back to the newsgroup. If you must
email: remove "killspam" from reply address. This email address will be
valid for a short time only.)