[thelist] Liquidity

Erika Meyer erika at seastorm.com
Wed Jul 5 14:23:36 CDT 2000


A liquid site is a site that changes it's layout... so if you have a 
high resolution or a low resolution or if you like to shove your 
browser windows off to the side or browse full screen... the stuff in 
your site moves around to accommodate that.

When I first began building web sites, it was normal to use straight 
HTML, no tables, and the text was normally liquid, but stretched from 
end to end in the browser window.

Later people began using tables.  Then for a time I remember everyone 
commanding everyone else NOT to use "percents" in table layout. 
Everyone wanted their designs cryogenically frozen  at 600 px I 
guess....

Hence, the "ice" layout.  This helped people feel their designs were 
"under control."

Now, as there is such a variety of monitor sizes and resolutions 
used, flexibility is back in fashion.  A frozen 600 px layout looks 
long and skinny on a big res, while a frozen 800 px (or whatever) is 
a pain to those of us on iMacs who like to keep our browser windows 
squeezed off to the side.

There are different techniques for building liquid sites, but tables 
set as percents are the safest. Images and/or spacer gifs help the 
table keep its shape at minimal sizes.

Erika

>I'm feeling stupid for asking this, but it keeps coming up.  What is meant
>by a "liquid site"?  Thanks for not laughing too loud at me.
>
>Janet :)

erika at seastorm.com
http://www.seastorm.com




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