Ok, The other day I got to check out one of my websites on a new widescreen laptop, it looked horrible... It's fluid width, with a couple things set to "float: right" or "float: left"... But because the screen was so wide, it looked messed up... So I checked out some other sites too, and not very many sites look good... Is this something we're going to have to start factoring in soon?
What is your web site? I design all of my web pages on my wide screen monitor, then I have to spend the time to make it look nice on smaller resolutions. Without looking at the site, I have a couple of possibilities. Use CSS to set a max-width so that it stretches, but not too far. Many people with wide screens don't mind a bit of empty space on the left and right side of their screen. You could also try using the 'left' and 'right' positioning properties (try using percentages) instead of the float properties. This can sometimes yield better results, but it really depends on the site. Ultimately, I would recommend saving your money and getting a 22" wide screen LCD monitor. I know they are a bit of money, but it will be one of your best investments ever. Then get the "Yet Another Window Resizer" Firefox Extension. This will allow you to resize your window to lower resolutions at the click of a button. With this set up you can test what your web page will look like on the entire range of different resolutions.
Thanks for the advice, I'm going to change it around a bit today using the max-width! appreciate the input You should go to the services section and offer screenshots of peoples sites on a widescreen for like $0.50 or something, i'm sure some people would love to see how their pages look
It is not only the look of it but also practicalities. If you have ever seen heat maps of where peoples eyes go when looking at a site the results are even more pronounced for widescreen monitors with top right etc almost being total dead zones. Previously you put things there and accepted they would be seen but not have big impact. For widescreen users many will not even noticed there is anything there. The other consideration is usability as common psychology would have us believe that people are not comfortable reading very log lines of text. My experience of this it does hold up as I use both widescreen and non-widescreen monitors.
That is very sound advice. I always forget to consider human tendencies. Do you guys really think that there is a need for screen shots on a wide screen here at Digital Point?
They wouldn't hurt. Especially for people who cannot afford a wider screen. I lucked upon a laptop with a wide screen, so I get to see this automatically. But if I still had my $800 Gateway, tough luck for me. A screenshot would be awesome then. Though maybe there's already websites which do such things, like the mulitple-browser sites. Thx for the tip about window resizers!
I think so, with all the webmasters, there's bound to be plenty without a widescreen, that are interested to see how it would look...
What I do is set a maximum width via CSS (though I have to use an expression for IE 6) and then set the margins of the container DIV that I use (unless I'm using the body directly) to 0 auto to center it for those people who have widescreen monitors with high resolutions and their browsers maximized to fill all that real estate.