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Originally Posted by hallidayny
Hi - For a lot of site with not a lot of money for development, they have to fit the lowest common denominator.
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You seem to imply that CSS-driven XHTML designs are more expensive. In fact, they tend to be cheaper. In the long run, they are always cheaper.
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Originally Posted by hallidayny
For a fixed width, if the worst you can say is "it's not cool enough," are you working for you or your client?
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"it's not cool enough" is never an objective. The worst things you can say for a fixed width design is that
a) most likely it falls apart at bigger font sizes
b) it may not work well on smaller screens
c) the problem aggravates with a) and b) combined
And "working for your client" implies "working for your client's clients", or not? You say it in the next sentence:
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Originally Posted by hallidayny
Your client wants ppl to go to the site and have it look good and work, whether they are on a standard 17" monitor at the office or a really nice 21" flat screen (like mine).
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That's the problem. Almost ALL designers I know have 21" (me too) and they almost never bother what it might look like on a 12" or a device with 320x200.
Try viewing some sites on 800x600 with font size set to "big" and you will see what I mean. Oh, and do not just set the window pixel width to 800x600 ... you have to actually change screen resolution to see the effect.
The "ppl" with a 21" are rare, and many 17" operate at 800x600, as do many laptops. Add the growing market of PDA users.
"Your client wants ppl to go to the site and have it look good and work"
--> exactly. Whether they are on 21" or 5".
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Originally Posted by hallidayny
You will have fewer errors and unpleasant surprises if you lock your layout down,
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As I said above, you run into a lot of problems with fixed widths as well.
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Originally Posted by hallidayny
and your sites display similarly on a variety of monitors, platforms and browsers.
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This is a question of your designer skills.
Obviously, we have two different lines of thinking here:
a) a print style oriented approach, which clings to the pixel-perfect fixed world of printed media and serves mainly younger PC users
b) a web-oriented "flow-style" approach which strives to serve a multitude of "devices" from PC to Laptop to PDA to smartphone.
You can get good results with either approach. It depends on the project, there is no general advice to "use a fixed design" or "use a liquid design".
One last note: Using fixed widths does NOT automatically imply that it won't work on small screens. Many devices render the pages different to adapt the pages to the smaller screen. Just give it a try - either use OPERA's or FF's small screen rendering mode. While not perfect, it will give you an idea what your pages might look like on a "device".
faglork