one size for all? What I learned.

[Masters, Gary E]

Problem:  Page that looked good on 17" monitor set to 1024 by 768 was
difficult to use on Boss' machine and coworkers computer.  Needed a page
that would fit in their screens that were set for different resolutions.

After much good advice, I tested two pages that were having problems when
viewed on computers with IE (version  5.00.2919.6307CO). Most solutions
involved setting table properties for width.  I also looked at cell
properties and changed them to per cents that added up to 100 percent for
the entire table.  (As 45 + 20 +35 for three columns.)  One I set the width
percent to 100 on the table properties (using Front Page 2000 as the editor)
and the other I set it at 600 pixels.  Both were not perfect and seem to
support a theory that there is some padding in the process.  (Check it out
at http://www.alistapart.com/stories/journey/4.html.
<http://www.alistapart.com/stories/journey/4.html.> )  However both were
pretty good.  My process is to do a page to the point that the library likes
it, then turn it over to a person who "hand" codes it into HTMP.  That is
where it gets cleaned up and these "bugs" chased away.  I don't think in
HTML now and probably never will.  

Conclusion:

Writing pages that will work on all types of browsers is still more of an
art than a science, but care can make the worst faults less of a problem.
It will probably get better in the future.  Jakob Nielsen's "Designing Web
Usability" is still a good resource.  I got it in a class and have it on my
desk.  You can't get better support than on web4lib.  It is as good as Word
Perfect was.

Thanks!

Gary




Gary E. Masters
Librarian (Systems)
CDRH - FDA
(301) 827-6893