what is the width of your web page? i currently use 780 pixel wide web page, i want to expand the width, but i hear that if i do, some computer with lower solution cant view the whole web page at once, they will have to scroll left and right.
Most of wish this was a simple issue. A look in any electronics/computer store will send your head spinning with all the new computer resolutions that are coming out. Like you, most of my work is set to 780-800 pix but those pages can look horrible on the newer resolutions that exceed 1200 pixels in width.
Yeh i've used the same 768 pixels wide though, i like the look of them pages also. Yeah very old monitors will struggle with anything larger (have to scroll right and left) like my old school computers hence why i went to smaller width. Not sure with what everybody else uses, it does look horrible but if you can get a nice background the site can look quite elegant. It depends if ultimate compatiability is an issue then i guess you have to stick to this width unless there is a code which enlarges and decreases width dependant upon monitor size, which i'm not sure there is.
For me it really depends on the site. I run a 24" Apple Cinema Display and also a 13" MacBook so I can see the comparison. Some sites actually benefit from the minimalistic view of being only 780px wide. An example of this is: shorthats (dot) com Other sites that display a lot of data are better being liquid like a blog: dev.feedthebull (dot) com I also take the target audience into consideration. Someone viewing a site like Engadget is most likely tech savvy and probably has a 1024+ monitor. However, a site about cooking recipes might have a broader audience and I would go either 780 or liquid. Also if I had a site like YouTube that is bandwidth heavy I could probably assume that nearly everyone viewing the site has broadband and most likely also a 17"+ monitor running at 1024+. Just my 2 cents
I generally like 800 x 600 given that the majority of people probably have a 17" or larger monitor.. This seems to keep things good for a general audience. I like to keep text around 12 minimum so people do not have to squint on higher resolutions.
Its actually quite simple to do, you just assign percent (%) values instead of pixel (px) values to all of your containers. for example, if you have a left menu, a central content menu, and a left menu all you would might have something like this: .left {width : 25% ;} .center {width: 50% ;} .right {width: 25% ;} that is, if you are using CSS
I was a 780 guy for years. I recently changed my site to be 900 now after viewing my stats and realizing that the majority of my viewers have higher resolution. Plus, I'm able to fit in another column of advertisements.
i have another question, if i use the percentage, the page will autosize itself to fit the resolution, but will the banner do the same? because im planning to place some banner in my right panel.
it really depends on your audience. I rarely do 760 anymore and go up to 1000px or so for most of my clients. You have to track your metrics and see how many users are still on that resolution. I had less than 2 percent.
The trend is definitely moving towards higher resolution monitors. I just took a look at the stats for my site, displayrackstore (dot) com; only 5% of the visitors are using 800x600, 46% are 1024x768, and the rest are using a higher resolution than that. Obviously that's just the stats for one site, but I'm sure it would be safe to say that the majority of users are moving to higher resolutions.
I do 900, I have 30 sites which I used to keep under 800 for the old school reason that this is what most people used. However, analytics have shown me that now 90% are using 1024 as the width if not more so I changed to 900. My topics are all over the place (so they arent all gamers and such!) Are all of you taking this ifo from your analytics or just the old school rule of thumb?