Broken View on Web (2002)

**bearfur** · 2008-02-29 07:56

I have been running into a problem with how my web page comes out on different computers. I manage the site on my desktop, it has a wide screen moniter. When I look at what I have done on a monitor that is not the same size there are things that are out of place, sometimes not even readable. How do I make it so that what I do stays in place no matter what kind of computer is looking at the site? I know it is probably a simple setting that needs to be changed, at least that is what I am hoping for. Can anyone tell me what I need to do? Thanks,
Bearfur

**Leif** · 2008-02-29 09:24

I suspect it has to do with your alignment of various sections and how you are coding it. If you have no set width on a section of text, for instance, it may take 6 lines to display on a 800 pixel wide display, but only 3 lines on a 1024 wide display.

The answer may be to set a fixed width on your page as some web sites do. If you look at http://news.bbc.co.uk/ as an example, they have set a specific and quite narrow width to ensure the layout is retained whatever the browser/screen resolution.

Can you post a link to the web in question? Hopefully then we can offer some constructive suggestions.

(I deleted your duplicate post - this one had shown up!)

**jscher2000** · 2008-02-29 09:26

Do you want to lock the width of the page so that people with 4:3 aspect screens will need to use the horizontal scroll bar to read your page? If so, you will need to set a width on a container in your page. Commonly this is done using a <div> or <table>, depending on your page design, but I suppose you could also set the width of the <body>. Does this help?

**bearfur** · 2008-03-01 19:55

Aloha jscher200,
Thanks for your reply. Yes I would like to set the area of my text and other web elements so that no matter what size monitor someone is using to view it my content will all be where it is supposed to be. I am not doing any coding, I'm afraid I am not that advanced. Can I use text boxes to guide me in the sizes I need? What are the standard widths that I need to use to insure proper placement of my content?

**bearfur** · 2008-03-01 20:06

(Edited by HansV to make URL clickable - see <!help=19>Help 19<!/help>)

Aloha Leif,

Yes, here is the site address http://www.globalwarrior.org. I don't know much about coding so it would be hard for me to strp right into that. Perhaps you can coach me a bit on that and i might be able to get that hang of it, at least for simple things.

Thank you for your reply and I look forward to hearing back from you.

Bearfur

**Jezza** · 2008-03-01 20:11

Hi Bearfur

Looking at my avitar and your name, I am not sure what to say <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

You have come across the age old conundrum of a web designer and what to do with your web pages as you have found everyone has different screen widths and resolutions. When I was a Webmaster, I was always very aware of the fact that I had a very large monitor and a lot of people ( at that time) would have a much smaller resolution.

A lot of the time it is for you to monitor your web page log files as this can tell what the majority of your visitors will be viewing your pages. I Use Google Analytics for this type of thing.

Many sites use tables for laying out and use tables width a fixed number of pixels to prevent horizontal scrolling at lower screen resolutions. A page set at 800x600 should have a maximum width of about 760 pixels.

Of course some people will be viewing your site at a higher resolution and will therefore see empty space around the edges. If this is the case it is best to centre the table and colour the background.

Another method, and one that can be a little cumbersome is to set the table widths to a fixed percentage but this can take away some of the control of fixed width.

I/We can assist you with the syntax for the code

**bearfur** · 2008-03-01 20:26

Aloha Jezza,

Thank you for your reply, are you saying that if I set my width to 800x600 and do everything inside that boundary I should be ok? I like the idea of using backgrounds, I am using the thems that come with frontpage for the back grounds so that should be ok right? I wish I knew more about coding but i don not. I look forward to hearing back from you to clarify my next step of action on this problem.

Bearfur

**Jezza** · 2008-03-01 20:35

Hi Bearfur

I suggest that you set the width of your page to 760 pixels (you have to allow for the vertical scrollbar and edging of the browser), you have it currently set to 100% which will "expand" to the width of the viewers screen. The text boxes with information about your family and updates are fixed and so the take their fixed location. For example the text box titled "Our Update letter is 232 pixels from the left and 243 pixels from the top, this will vary dependent on the resolution of a screen and change. As for height, that can be as tall as you want as the user can use the vertical scroller

I suggest that as you are a self-professed newcomer to web page design that you construct a table that will hold the structure of your page and not have floating elements. If you will permit me, I can put together a mock up of your page and put it temporarily on my website with a link. I am orders from Mrs Jezza at the moment but can do it sometime during the evening (UK time)

**bearfur** · 2008-03-01 21:28

Aloha Jezza,

Thank you for getting back to me so soon. Yes I think that would be fine if you wanted to do the mock up page, i really need to learn this once and for all becuase I update this site all the time and I am so frustrated with going through this process of changing things over and over again to make it come out right. It is like a guessing game and I would like to be able to do it and know it is right the first time. Just to clarify, the floating objects would be the pictures or the text boxes? It is so hard to make things fit in the place Iwant them to go.
If I use a table do I make the table with 760, or is 760 the total width of my entire page? If I use a table then everything that is in it will be set at the position the table is set at in the page? Is that correct? Sorry for all the questions, I just haven't had anyone help me learn frontpage, I've had to do it all on my own really

Ok, I look forward to hearing from you. Do you use any kind of instant messaging software, it might be more time efficient for us to chat while you are teaching me rather than going through the forum for everything. I have msn messenger as well as yahoo messenger and Skype.

Thanks again.

Bearfur

**HansV** · 2008-03-01 21:32

> it might be more time efficient for us to chat while you are teaching me rather than going through the forum for everything.

Unless you need to discuss personal or sensitive material, we prefer questions and answers to remain in the public forums - that way others can benefit from them too. See <!rule=10>Rule 10<!/rule>.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

**bearfur** · 2008-03-01 21:39

Absolutely, I totally understand.

bearfur

**jscher2000** · 2008-03-01 23:36

As an aside, my primary browser is Firefox 2. In Firefox, the page is a huge mess. To avoid this, set your options in Frontpage to NOT use VML. I no longer have Frontpage handy, but on the Tools menu, one of the options dialogs has Authoring or Compatibility options. It's good to use PNGs, and bad to use VML. <img src=/S/smile.gif border=0 alt=smile width=15 height=15>

That won't help you in IE, you still need to work on that, but at least it will be less crazy-looking in Firefox.

**bearfur** · 2008-03-02 00:17

Jscher,

Ok, I un checked the vml box. Is it better in your FireFox browser now?

Bearfur

**jscher2000** · 2008-03-02 01:12

<hr>Ok, I un checked the vml box. Is it better in your FireFox browser now?<hr>

Wow, that's way better, thanks. Night and day. Or should I say, chaos and peace.

**bearfur** · 2008-03-02 01:17

Way cool, so it looks ok now?

I am doing a lot of work on the home page of the site, I just started all over again on it with the table idea. It seems to be working in terms of getting things laid out the way I want them and I am checking on my laptop to see if it comes out ok on a different monitor. I have SO MUCH TO LEARN.

Can you look at the rest of the site and see if there are any other pages that are a wreck? Thanks, if so I am going to have to address them ASAP so that I can get this update sent out. I can't imagine what folks must have been thinking with it all messed up.

Thank you.

Bearfur

Thread: Broken View on Web (2002)

Thread Tools