[thelist] fluid tables or fixed width; centred or left aligned tables for fixed layout.

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Tue Jun 5 00:00:24 CDT 2001


> From: emilia at netmastery.com.au
>
> What is the consensus these days on whether to design the overall
> layout of site as full width (fluid), or fixed width (600, 750, 800 or
> other pixels)?

heh... we just went through some of this recently... i thought last 
week, but hey, it's easier to search google to find some older posts 
anyway:

http://lists.evolt.org/archive/Week-of-Mon-20010319/152755.html

i chose this one for its anti-liquid stance, something we don't hear 
too much...

> I think I have heard the arguments before, but perhaps new 
> technologies in either web construction tools or web browser tools 
> have changed things. 

new technologies?  well, um, notepad hasn't changed much in 10 
years... and if you mean WYSIWYGs, don't expect them to 
natively do liquid tables, you'll need to massage...

but what other tools do you mean?  web browsers?  same place 
we were 6 months ago (and i bet the logs of various sites support 
that)...

> What are the pros and cons of late?

same as last week... some users don't like resizing their windows 
(even if the developer thinks that he/she is empowering the user to 
make it a comfortable size)... some developers don't want to worry 
about it and do the extra work of liquid designs (not HTML)...

> Should it be different for a portal versus a corporate site?

i dunno, should it?  what's the difference between the two?  
anyway, that's rhetorical, since it's best determined on a case-by-
case basis...

> If it is fixed width, should the table be centred... are there proven
> readability metrics?  

30-70 characters per line, but good luck figuring if you've gotten it 
given all the assorted possible window sizes... i can point you to a 
myriad of evolt articles discussing screen resolution, window size, 
readability, etc., but the answer will be pretty much the same, you 
need to use your judgment for your audience... weigh the 
pros/cons for those...




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