MatthewHSE - 9:21 pm on Jun 1, 2005 (gmt 0)

I used to go all fluid, but lately I've been designing sites with a fixed width of about 770px. It's nicer in that you have more control over the general page layout, which I think is a viable reason for using fixed-width.

If I find that a particular fixed-width layout looks a little "scrunched" at 800x600, I throw in a javascript resolution sniffer and use it to write a new stylesheet for users whose resolution is wider. Users with 800x600 or without js turned on get the "standard" version, while those at 1024x768 get a broader, more open layout.

Testing both resolutions is a breeze with this kind of setup, as you can view the 800x600 version just by turning off javascript (two clicks in Firefox with WebDeveloper extension installed). And, the substitute stylesheet only has to include new width values to over-ride the defaults, meaning it's a pretty small file size.