Re: relative vs. fixed-width page layout

> What I haven't found is a good *philosophical* discussion
> about *why* you would choose one strategy over the other.

hi michele

i'll be watching to see if there are any other replies, because i too would
like to have some references

so far all i have is several posts filed away from other discussion lists,
and i can't share them with you for obvious copyright reasons

but i can tell you my own philosophy, which isn't original with me, and
which i know is shared by others --

  ==>  don't worry about it  <==

in fact, your 85% table idea is probably the best solution for all
widths -- from 640 right up to 1600 and beyond

this technique, as you pointed out, adds some nice white space

another technique is to apply margins to the body, that way you don't even
have to use a table, and the page will load even faster

in any case, i think the issue revolves around long lines of text

first of all, it's clear that long lines of text aren't a problem at 640,
right?

okay, so the issue becomes what to do for your visitors with large
resolution screens

the reason you don't need to worry about it is because people with large
resolution screens rarely surf with the browser window maximized -- and
this is either (a) because they are already sick and tired of visiting so
may web sites where the text lines are too long to read comfortably, or (b)
because the reason they have a large resolution screen is so that they can
have other windows open on the desktop, and again they don't have the
browser window maximized

so basically i think it's a non-issue

but the white space is still a good idea    ;o)

_____________
rudy limeback
http://r937.com/
http://evolt.org/

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