Hey guys, I'm just working on a new article directory and am having a hard time deciding which style to go with. 100% width like ezinearticles.com and buzzle.com or fixed pixel width like goarticles.com? I've noticed the more authority article directories are 100% width. But why? I also have to take into account Adsense click through rates as well, I wonder which style they are higher on? Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Go with fixed pixel width, some people have massively wide montiors (1920 pixels) and would see the sentences on your site as drawn out and un-structured. Cater for everyone with your site even the 800px wide monitors, perhaps stick the main content in the 770px limit and the adverts right of that. good luck,
agreed. Fixed pixel width is really the only way to go unless you are getting creative with your design. There are too many people with smaller resolution monitors out there which you need to think about.
well it depends on how you have coded the content of the site and what the content is, if it is article site then the chances are that its mostly text so the page will still look good on a 1920pixel width monitor cause text just wraps itself nicely on other hand if the website uses alot of images and has columns then I would recommend the fixed pixel but again for that you can use a script that will calculate user's screen size & resolution and based on that populates the right amount of columns that option is abit tricky And in the end it is up to you and what kind of look you wanna go for, if you are thinking about the fact that space sells and want to make the most of your space then best to go with 100% option but if you want a site that looks simple and not too busy then go for fixed pixel. Hope this has been helpful to you =)
as mentioned above use px, and so every user will get same experience with your site. or add a js option to switch if its that difficult to decide
Personally I have never done a layout in % simply because you never know how big the monitor is. I've got one pc pluged into a 32inch tv, and some percent based websites are really disappointing looking.
This thread is pretty useful, I've never been too sure which method is favourable. What is a decent fixed width to use given majority screen resolutions of 1024x768? Roughly 1000 wide and auto height?
Thanks for all the tips guys. What I eventually decided to go with was a combination of both. I set a 100% fluid width but did a max width of 1260px and a minimum width of 980px. This way it fills the screen on lower resolutions, and only goes to a maximum of 1260px wide on higher resolutions. Let me know what you guys think! www.boostarticles.com Code (markup):
I think Fixed Width is best for todays resolutions. 100% on some monitors is just too spread. 960-1100px works well and can provide a nice border from the main content for those on resolutions 1024 and above.
When I code clients websites I use a base element of 800-900px. Then I make sure its expandable, and include a Javascript handler that allows people to stretch it by 50-100px. Clicking the arrow makes it smaller or larger, everyone uses different resolutions, and sometimes even zoom in on text which makes the site annoying and large. That or you can do Resolution checks and do if 800x(variable) then show Layout1, if 1024x(variable) show Layout2 etc etc