Need to scroll horizontally in some resolutions

Page loads incorrectly

[mfmikeb]

I am sooo the amateur but cannot get this right: Pages on our site load fine at 1024 x 768 at least on my 17" monitor but at 800 x 600 you have to scroll horizontally. Same holds true at 1024 x 768 if I have my favorites sidebar open in IE.
There are many things that need work on the site but this is definitely one I want to fix.
Not sure if I'm allowed to post the url or not.
Mike

[zooloo]

Are your tables fixed width rather than % ?

Try table at 100% and unless you have a wide graphic it should fit in 800x600 too

zooloo

[BlobFisk]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, mfmikeb!

zooloo's right - it would seem that you are setting your layout to have an absolute width (eg: 1000px). Setting it to a relative width (100%) will make the content use the available space.

This is known as a fluid layout. The CSS Forum [webmasterworld.com] has a number of threads dealing with creating this type of layout using CSS.

HTH

[mfmikeb]

Well, that's the weird part. I use %.
All of my pages are fine except our main page. I DO have a lot of tables nested within one big table however.
Could that be it?
Mike

[Old_Honky]

Do you use % on all your tables/cells?
It could be some fixed width cells inside a nested table or perhaps several small images in cells in the same row where the combined width is greater than 800px.

[pixelkat]

old_honky hit the nail on the head for you. the total sum of your image widths must be more than 725px (approximately) across. doesn't matter whether your tables all use % or use css for flexible layout. the result will always be the same.

the only solution is to make sure your total width is around 725px or less. note that with 800x600, the 800 width doesn't account for actual viewing area which varies with different monitor brands. you also have to factor in browser window borders and right scroll bars. and if your visitors are predominantly AOL users, 700px width is probably a safer bet.

have you examined your web traffic logs to determine just how many visitors are actually accessing your site using 800x600 resolution? if the number is neglible, I wouldn't even worry about changing it, especially if it's only one page. just make sure all your important content is visble in front of the scroll.

[mfmikeb]

whoa....i use weblog expert..how can i see the res that my visitors are using?

[bill]

That's not generally tracked in your server logs. You'd probably have to set up some sort of JavaScript tracker to get that type of data.

[BlobFisk]

I thought that most web servers can track user resolution?

[bill]

I've got IIS on this machine, and can confirm that it won't track screen resolution in its logs. It doesn't seem to show up in any of my Apache logs either.