Web page size problems

Pages not fitting on other computers

[dan_beard]

Hi all. I am designing a site for the first time and i´m using Dreamweaver. I am keeping it pretty basic. All pages fit nicely to my computer but when viewed on other systems, like a lap top, about a quarter of the page is cut off. I designed the tables and cells with fixed widths etc. and i guess this is the problem. But rather than go back and start from scratch, is there a shortcut to solving my sizing problems? Changing pixels to percentages or something?

[txbakers]

hi Dan and welcome to the Webmaster World Forums!

Your problem is one that many beginning webmasters run into. It looks great on mine, but rotten elsewhere.

One solution is to change to percentages, but you might not like what you see as everything that can get moved, will move.

Another solution is to design for a basic screen resolution (not inches) and hope that most of your visitors will be able to see it.

Many sites use fixed width tables, I always do without complaint from customers.

A good resolution to aim for is 800 x 600, which most people have already.

Good luck with your designing and come back often.

[dan_beard]

txbakers, thanks for your advice. ive been away a few days so sorry for the delayed thank you. Just a couple of questions. If i want to fix my table to a certain resolution, would that be the pixel measurement? And if i decide to use percentages instead, is there a standard percentage that works for most people?

[txbakers]

I keep my tables to about 760 wide. Height really doesn't matter.

Percentages are all based on 100% so you can stick with that.

It starts looking funny if you have stuff with a right alignment.

[dan_beard]

OK. My tables are 1200 pixels wide! Thanks.

[piatkow]

Far too wide for most PCs. In my photo gallery I normally go for a 750 pixel fixed width. Other pages I try and keep to percentages.

[BananaFish]

1024 X 768 has supplanted 800 X 600 as the most common resolution. If you can't go with a liquid design, I wouldn't necessarily design to the least common denominator. I'd do something the wouldn't look bad in the lowest resolution but looked good in the higher resolution browsers.