Just to follow up... I had meant to mention earlier that there are quite a few /benefits/ to fixed width layouts. While you noted they seem inflexible, until we get a bit better CSS support from IE (namely min-width and max-width, which will enable us to blend fluid and fixed width layouts a bit more freely), they're actually a boon to usability:
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3S/layout.htm http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/feb03.asp The basics of it being that shorter lines are easier for people to read. I'm not dyslexic, but it's still sometimes easy for me to lose my place in the midst of reading lengthy texts with longish lines... I can only imagine how crapulent that must be for people with genuine disabilities (even relatively minor ones like dyslexia). I'm fairly sure the 'mobile boxes' you're refferring to are actually DHTML (JS, CSS and HTML) layers which are being positioned relative to the viewport. Interestingly enough, this is a really just a hack for the CSS2 property 'position:fixed', which does the same thing in browsers that support it, but without the annoying bumping around you describe. - Stephen On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 22:44:57 +0100, Joseph Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Will, > > I saw this after I had sent out my earlier reply. I have Top Style Lite > (from a much earlier recommendation by Cheryl) and I agree it is a great > help. And thanks Cheryl for the further link. > > I clicked back to my own (tables) site to check I was talking (and writing) > sense and I find that some pages re-adjust to more or less fit a smaller > browser window and some don't - or do so to a lesser degree!! My skills > (and time to hone them) are by necessity limited, so I'm not too ashamed of > that, but my object is a site which offers a good experience however the > browser window is. > > I have taken on board Stephen's further highly informative and helpful > remarks. > > Now I have (since I have noted boxes) understood that there are great > similarities in appearance between tables and boxes; and previously that > css cleans up the html (the added SE positioning value I had not registered > before, though). > > I will download and see how I get on with Stephen's Firefox advice. > > The mobile boxes I have seen which I have been describing (inadequately) are > not the ones that fill a width, but those that float so that if the browser > is scrolled a section (usually with transparency but not always) bounces > around at the top ot side or bottom of the window, often obscuring some part > of the main text; the movement can be uncomfortable. I am starting to > understand this is not what I had thought, but what is that? > > Thanks again for all the comments, teachers. > > Joseph (who thought he had a good gripe) ____ • The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM • ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To set a personal password send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words: "set WDVLTALK pw=yourpassword" in the body of the email. To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.
