Post by myke on May 31, 2006 15:54:23 GMT -8
Screen Resolutions
One of the single most important aspects of web and forum design today, I think, is formatting your site/forum to look good in all screen resolutions.
Remember, not everyone is seeing the web the exact same way as you are. You may see a table that fits perfectly in width on your screen, but the next visitor may see a table that is too long for his screen, causing a bottom scroll bar to appear.
The same holds true with a ProBoard. 1024 x 768 is a popular, and common screen resolution these days. Odds are, if you buy a new monitor for a reasonable price today, the web will look best in it at 1024 x 768. Falling not far behind, in second place, is still 800 x 600, according to W3Schools.com.
When designing your ProBoard, many people like to add width codes to keep their forum the same width as their banner, for cosmetic purposes. When you are designing your forum, you want to take different screen resolutions into account.
I would suggest not having any image, table, or the forum width of your ProBoard exceed 750 pixels, 800 at the very most. Anything longer then 800 pixels may look fine on your screen, but will go off screen, and cause an annoying horizontal scrollbar to appear on the bottom of peoples browser who is using a screen resolution of 800 x 600.
In fact, I have found the perfect width of both banner, tables and forum is 700 pixels. At 700 pixels it will look good still in 1024 x 768, and will be just narrow enough for 800 x 600 users to still see the background on each side of the forum.
What about the larger resolutions such as 1280 x 1024, and 1600 x 1200?
To be honest, you will come across those who are using large resolutions like that. I know a handful of people here on ProBoards Support who are using those. Your ProBoard set to the dimensions recommended above will look good in those higher resolutions, with one exception:
Non Tiled Backgrounds
Some of us like to use a non tiled background, for example; a single image, as opposed to a small image repeated over and over again. The largest single image background I would recommend is 1024 x 768 in size, simply for loading issues. You have to think, any image larger then that will take a while to load, even more so for users who are on dial up.
It is impossible to cater to every screen resolution. That is one of the largest headaches for all web designers and forum administrators alike. However, the most logical thing to do, is to cater to the most popular resolutions, which would be 1024 x 768 and 800 x 600.
Cross Browser
Just like with resolutions above, many different people use many different browsers, thus the web will again look different to different people.
Most websites are coded for Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is the most used browser on the internet. However, many people (especially here on ProBoards Support, which is a good source for members) are using such browsers as Firefox, and Opera.
Why should that matter?
Like I said above, most sites, and most ProBoards hacks (custom codes) are written for Internet Explorer. Firefox and Opera are more strict on reading codes, and will only read codes that are written to the standard. So what you may be seeing in Internet Explorer, may not be what people are seeing in Firefox and Opera. Most of the time, if it looks different in Firefox and Opera, it is going to look worse, not at all how you intended it to be seen.
I'm no coder, how can I remedy this?
As these new, more strict browsers gain popularity, more and more ProBoards coders are coding for cross browser. When you visit a design forum in seek of codes, many of them will have regular codes, and codes labeled 'Cross-Browser'. You will want the codes that are labeled 'Cross-Browser'. That means that the codes are developed to work properly in all browsers, thus what is being seen in Internet Explorer, will look the same in Firefox, Opera, ect.
It may be a good idea to download these browsers, if only to use to preview things in, to test things in. I myself use Internet Explorer. However, I do have Firefox and Opera, and I use them sole to test things when I am building web pages, or designing my ProBoard.
It is important for your forum forum to be cross browser compatible, because if something looks terrible in one's browser, that may be enough to turn them away, thus you have just lost a member.
________________________________________
So in the end, make sure that your forum is resolutions friendly - looks good on all resolutions, specifically the most popular ones, and make sure your forum looks good in all browsers, not just Internet Explorer.
Comments, questions, thoughts?
One of the single most important aspects of web and forum design today, I think, is formatting your site/forum to look good in all screen resolutions.
Remember, not everyone is seeing the web the exact same way as you are. You may see a table that fits perfectly in width on your screen, but the next visitor may see a table that is too long for his screen, causing a bottom scroll bar to appear.
The same holds true with a ProBoard. 1024 x 768 is a popular, and common screen resolution these days. Odds are, if you buy a new monitor for a reasonable price today, the web will look best in it at 1024 x 768. Falling not far behind, in second place, is still 800 x 600, according to W3Schools.com.
When designing your ProBoard, many people like to add width codes to keep their forum the same width as their banner, for cosmetic purposes. When you are designing your forum, you want to take different screen resolutions into account.
I would suggest not having any image, table, or the forum width of your ProBoard exceed 750 pixels, 800 at the very most. Anything longer then 800 pixels may look fine on your screen, but will go off screen, and cause an annoying horizontal scrollbar to appear on the bottom of peoples browser who is using a screen resolution of 800 x 600.
In fact, I have found the perfect width of both banner, tables and forum is 700 pixels. At 700 pixels it will look good still in 1024 x 768, and will be just narrow enough for 800 x 600 users to still see the background on each side of the forum.
What about the larger resolutions such as 1280 x 1024, and 1600 x 1200?
To be honest, you will come across those who are using large resolutions like that. I know a handful of people here on ProBoards Support who are using those. Your ProBoard set to the dimensions recommended above will look good in those higher resolutions, with one exception:
Non Tiled Backgrounds
Some of us like to use a non tiled background, for example; a single image, as opposed to a small image repeated over and over again. The largest single image background I would recommend is 1024 x 768 in size, simply for loading issues. You have to think, any image larger then that will take a while to load, even more so for users who are on dial up.
It is impossible to cater to every screen resolution. That is one of the largest headaches for all web designers and forum administrators alike. However, the most logical thing to do, is to cater to the most popular resolutions, which would be 1024 x 768 and 800 x 600.
Cross Browser
Just like with resolutions above, many different people use many different browsers, thus the web will again look different to different people.
Most websites are coded for Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is the most used browser on the internet. However, many people (especially here on ProBoards Support, which is a good source for members) are using such browsers as Firefox, and Opera.
Why should that matter?
Like I said above, most sites, and most ProBoards hacks (custom codes) are written for Internet Explorer. Firefox and Opera are more strict on reading codes, and will only read codes that are written to the standard. So what you may be seeing in Internet Explorer, may not be what people are seeing in Firefox and Opera. Most of the time, if it looks different in Firefox and Opera, it is going to look worse, not at all how you intended it to be seen.
I'm no coder, how can I remedy this?
As these new, more strict browsers gain popularity, more and more ProBoards coders are coding for cross browser. When you visit a design forum in seek of codes, many of them will have regular codes, and codes labeled 'Cross-Browser'. You will want the codes that are labeled 'Cross-Browser'. That means that the codes are developed to work properly in all browsers, thus what is being seen in Internet Explorer, will look the same in Firefox, Opera, ect.
It may be a good idea to download these browsers, if only to use to preview things in, to test things in. I myself use Internet Explorer. However, I do have Firefox and Opera, and I use them sole to test things when I am building web pages, or designing my ProBoard.
It is important for your forum forum to be cross browser compatible, because if something looks terrible in one's browser, that may be enough to turn them away, thus you have just lost a member.
________________________________________
So in the end, make sure that your forum is resolutions friendly - looks good on all resolutions, specifically the most popular ones, and make sure your forum looks good in all browsers, not just Internet Explorer.
Comments, questions, thoughts?
