Joomla fixed width template vice "Fluid with maximum"

[cmendla]

I am looking at a template maker for Joomla. It doesn't appear to do the "Fluid with maximum" width for templates but rather you set a fixed width.

My questions are

1. Are there significant advantages to the 'fluid with maximum" layout?

2. Are there any opinions as to the ideal width for the templates. I've been seeing things like 950 or 960. I realize that will leave some people with a less than optimal experience when visiting the site if they have an older display.

thanks

cg

[ergophobe]

Might as well ask Mac or Windows ;-) This topic has been often debated [google.com].

Personally, I always thought fixed layouts were evil evil evil... and then I got a *big* monitor and oh the eyestrain and I got so sick of resizing.

So, of course, there's fluid, but with max width. The problems are
- IE needs workarounds since the max-width CSS rule doesn't work (maybe in IE8, but I don't know). As IE6 dies, I guess that's less important.

- I've not seen many layouts that look good at a wide range of resolutions. So I usually just go fixed.

If I were motivated (not the case), I would use Javascript to check resolution [webmasterworld.com] (sometimes called the Switchy McLayout technique) and add in a stylesheet (or a class on the body that has rules in the main stylesheet) and adjust the layout. That might mean even making some images display:none if the display is small enough. It might mean two cols at one size and three at another.

And if I were really motivated, I would make line length set in ems, not pixels, so that about 35ems would give me about 70 characters, a reasonably comfortable reading length.

[cmendla]

ergophobe

Thanks.. I almost always search before posting a question here. The mistake I made was to add Joomla to the search terms.. It is the simple stuff..

I'll check out the posts from your link and go fixed width for now.

One thing I did notice with Joomla is that is looks decent on my windows mobile handheld in both Opera and IE. (Win mobile 6.x). What I'm finding works for me is

- put a 1x1 100% table at the top
- Put a 150 px high pic on the left set to Left
- Put some text to the right centered h2 such as purple widgities
- Put a read more below that

I also modified the separator in the CSS so that I get an HR between articles. The HR only shows in either exploder or opera.. forget which.

Anyway, the result is that the site is pretty decent on a handheld. I am by no means a world class designer but I do try to go for neat and functional.

Thanks again.. BTW - I am on Windoze...

cg

[T_Miller]

- I've not seen many layouts that look good at a wide range of resolutions. So I usually just go fixed.

That's my thoughts too. Fluid width is pretty neat to pull off but from a content standpoint it's hard to maintain a good flow & appearance.

Now my ecommerce site is fluid but the dynamic product content has a uniform format designed around being fluid so it works.

But the content of my other sites vary so much in format, pic layout, etc that it's just easier to work in a fixed environment. Especially in a CMS where multiple admins with varying skills are working on the site.

[ergophobe]

>>I am by no means a world class designer

Ha! I should add that I'm design impaired. I have a good eye for appreciating it, but somehow don't have the brain to envision it from scratch.

>> I almost always search before posting a question here

The thing is, the reason I posted the search link is because I couldn't find the best and longest threads on the topic. There have been some really good, extensive ones with good debate from all perspectives, but none of them showed up in the search I linked to. So you might keep poking around a bit.

[edited by: ergophobe at 6:14 pm (utc) on Aug. 18, 2009]

[cmendla]

UPDATE - thanks forlks for the ideas. I went with a fixed width template and it seems to be working OK. ONe mistake I had made was that I had sized a lot of my pics at 550 wide which made them a bit hard to fit into a three column layout.

I messed about with some of the layout and it seems OK.

I also messed around with the way I was doing the content. I had set up a one cell table above the 'read more' and put a pic and caption there. However it got a bit messy. What I ended up doing was putting a 150 high pic centered and a caption under that without a table.

That ends up looking pretty good on a desktop and in opera and ie mobile.

One problem I did run into was that the background of my template doesn't work in ie mobile. (text and background end up being about the same color)

Anyway, to sum it up, it appears that a fixed width template can work OK on mobiles. I'll have to check it on a blackberry when I get a chance. My kid has an ipod touch so I can get an idea of how it will look on safari.

thanks again everyone....