i hope i'm in the right forum for this! 
<br />
<br />
i have my own website, and my hits counter tell me that most of my visitors have their screen set to 800x600, which is fine.<br />
<br />
but some visitors have 1024x768, and my site looks naff at that resolution.<br />
<br />
is there any way i can overcome this problem?<!--content-->I keep spewing this one up, it was for another thread, but I hope it helps.<br />
<br />
800*600 is what I would aim for. If anyone is still surfing at any res less then forget them. Most surfers now surf at 800*600 or above. Could get into some deep discussion about it but there is no point going back to anything less. Don't think I have ever seen a web page in such a long time consider widths of anything less.<br />
<br />
As for 800 width, this means you design at 750 considering tool bars etc in Macs and PC's and the various browsers. <br />
<br />
Feel embaressed about posting this again, but what follows is an old post that I feel is relavent.<br />
<br />
<br />
There are four main factors that will determine how a site is percieved, these being: <br />
<br />
Screen Size <br />
Screen Res <br />
Browser <br />
Platform (ie Mac, Web TV or PC) <br />
<br />
<br />
I hope screen size doesn't need explaining but to say that in my experiance people using 17" and 19" monitors at home still view sites at a 800*600 res... only because they don't know how to ajust the res. <br />
<br />
Screen res is an important function to plan for when writing a site. The res to design for is 800*600. Most surfers view at this res (51%), but that doesn't mean some surfers don't surf at 640*480 (6%). I think it safe to ignore the latter though. Often over looked is the live space of a screen. <br />
<br />
A browser affects the live space. Just because a screen res is 800*600, that doesn't mean you get that to play with. Live space is the space you have when tool bars etc are removed. The lowest live space you should design for is (accounting for Netscape/Explorer) 778*406 on a pc and 751*427 on a mac, that is obviously at a 800*600 screen res. Various versions of explorer and netscape have diffrent live spaces, those just quoted would be the lowest of versions 5+. Combining these two you get 751*406. <br />
<br />
As you can see, the software changes the display. Hardware will also chnge the display. From the last paragraph you will see that PC's and Macs work a little differently. But there is a 3rd and much overlooked way of connecting to the web. Via a TV. TV's to put it bluntly are crap for internet viewing and interactivity. But people are buying more and more of them as an alternative to hogging up a PC or because they are cheaper. I am not sure what a web tv screen res would be, but the live space is 544*378. I would never design for web tv, but that depends on your content. If you are interested in more on web tv go to: <br />
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://developer.webtv.net">http://developer.webtv.net</a><!-- m --> <br />
<br />
As for your question as I may have digressed a little... <br />
<br />
There are two ways to combat the various diplays in a design aspect. <br />
<br />
1] Design your page at a fixed width, ie at a 800*600 res, with a live space of 751*406. This way mac and pc viewers will have no problem with your site. Perhaps the best way to start the design is with a table, width set to 751... and include everything inside that. <br />
<br />
2] The alternative is to dynamically author your site so that your page expands to fill the user area. If you do this... design your page with your monitor at 800*600 res then tweak it at a higher res. Why? The page may look great at a low res but empty at a higher res. <br />
<br />
I hope that gives you some insight and some design ideas. <br />
More than anything I hope it made sense.<!--content-->In your case I suggest designing based on 800x600 (make sure it looks good in this resolution), but also allow for additional white space because of the possibility of extra toolbars on the window chrome.<br />
<br />
Then center this in a table. The center effect will hardly be visible at 800x600 pixels, but show as a centered table at higher resolutions, eg<br />
<br />
at 800x600<br />
<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
<br />
higher<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<!--content-->
<br /><br />
i have my own website, and my hits counter tell me that most of my visitors have their screen set to 800x600, which is fine.<br />
<br />
but some visitors have 1024x768, and my site looks naff at that resolution.<br />
<br />
is there any way i can overcome this problem?<!--content-->I keep spewing this one up, it was for another thread, but I hope it helps.<br />
<br />
800*600 is what I would aim for. If anyone is still surfing at any res less then forget them. Most surfers now surf at 800*600 or above. Could get into some deep discussion about it but there is no point going back to anything less. Don't think I have ever seen a web page in such a long time consider widths of anything less.<br />
<br />
As for 800 width, this means you design at 750 considering tool bars etc in Macs and PC's and the various browsers. <br />
<br />
Feel embaressed about posting this again, but what follows is an old post that I feel is relavent.<br />
<br />
<br />
There are four main factors that will determine how a site is percieved, these being: <br />
<br />
Screen Size <br />
Screen Res <br />
Browser <br />
Platform (ie Mac, Web TV or PC) <br />
<br />
<br />
I hope screen size doesn't need explaining but to say that in my experiance people using 17" and 19" monitors at home still view sites at a 800*600 res... only because they don't know how to ajust the res. <br />
<br />
Screen res is an important function to plan for when writing a site. The res to design for is 800*600. Most surfers view at this res (51%), but that doesn't mean some surfers don't surf at 640*480 (6%). I think it safe to ignore the latter though. Often over looked is the live space of a screen. <br />
<br />
A browser affects the live space. Just because a screen res is 800*600, that doesn't mean you get that to play with. Live space is the space you have when tool bars etc are removed. The lowest live space you should design for is (accounting for Netscape/Explorer) 778*406 on a pc and 751*427 on a mac, that is obviously at a 800*600 screen res. Various versions of explorer and netscape have diffrent live spaces, those just quoted would be the lowest of versions 5+. Combining these two you get 751*406. <br />
<br />
As you can see, the software changes the display. Hardware will also chnge the display. From the last paragraph you will see that PC's and Macs work a little differently. But there is a 3rd and much overlooked way of connecting to the web. Via a TV. TV's to put it bluntly are crap for internet viewing and interactivity. But people are buying more and more of them as an alternative to hogging up a PC or because they are cheaper. I am not sure what a web tv screen res would be, but the live space is 544*378. I would never design for web tv, but that depends on your content. If you are interested in more on web tv go to: <br />
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://developer.webtv.net">http://developer.webtv.net</a><!-- m --> <br />
<br />
As for your question as I may have digressed a little... <br />
<br />
There are two ways to combat the various diplays in a design aspect. <br />
<br />
1] Design your page at a fixed width, ie at a 800*600 res, with a live space of 751*406. This way mac and pc viewers will have no problem with your site. Perhaps the best way to start the design is with a table, width set to 751... and include everything inside that. <br />
<br />
2] The alternative is to dynamically author your site so that your page expands to fill the user area. If you do this... design your page with your monitor at 800*600 res then tweak it at a higher res. Why? The page may look great at a low res but empty at a higher res. <br />
<br />
I hope that gives you some insight and some design ideas. <br />
More than anything I hope it made sense.<!--content-->In your case I suggest designing based on 800x600 (make sure it looks good in this resolution), but also allow for additional white space because of the possibility of extra toolbars on the window chrome.<br />
<br />
Then center this in a table. The center effect will hardly be visible at 800x600 pixels, but show as a centered table at higher resolutions, eg<br />
<br />
at 800x600<br />
<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
-################-<br />
<br />
higher<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<br />
--------------##############-------------<!--content-->