Used to get great help through globalscape support, but today it would not open. So I signed up here...
Same folks here so you are in good hands. We opened this forum because GS promised to keep the other forum open until July of THIS year, with no promise past that point. We are just making sure that our support system is intact in case they DO remove the forum from their site. We also have the freedom/luxury of talking about non-GS software on this forum.
OK. To your questions...Designing for multiple resolutions is a tricky topic. Many points of view on this one.
But with CSB there are specific techniques I will mention to give you the best result possible.
Always design your page in the LOWEST RESOLUTION YOU WANT TO SUPPORT.Decide what resolution is best for you, set YOUR resolution to that when you work in CSB.In my case, I still use 800x600 for my lowest resolution because many offices still have older CRT monitors (big oldies, not the flat screen models), including my own!
And older eyes often require this setting to see the screen. So I set my HOME machine to 800x600 while using CSB. I can see how much room on the page I can use for my display. Publish. Then check it online in both 800x600 and 1024x768 (my most used resolution). That is my BASE setting that I support. Anyone that shrinks the page will get scroll bars.
You need to know YOUR visitors. Who are they? Young, hi-tech, using laptops? Then design your site for them by setting your personal resolution to 1024x768 while building in CSB, etc. For MY site, this is now the most used setting. If you design at this resolution and someone with 800x600 visits your site, they will get the nasty horizontal scroll bar on each page. There are scripts for stat sites that gather the resolution size of your visitors. (I have tried a few, but they did not seem to work well for me so will not recommend one in particular).
Your partner is using a relatively HIGH resolution 1152x864 for a BASE design. And that is not really a standard setting recognized by all monitors. This would cause all users of CRT monitors, and 17" laptops using 1024x768 to get that bottom scroll bar. (Kinda like using websafe fonts, you should consider using one of the standard monitor settings that most monitors can accept: 800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x720 for your base). Your choice. Your website. Do what is best for YOUR site.
My partner suggested that I should not use tables to hold things in place so that things can adjust themselves for different screen resolutions
Generally, this is not a good idea for CSB users. People that have tried this on ALL TEXT pages are satisfied with results as the text shifts and still looks fine. But most people have text and images on the page. Images walk (move around the page) and the site does not retain a consistent look. Most people do not like the way their pages appear at different resolutions using no tables and ask how to fix it!
With CSB, designing with tables is your best bet. Holds things in place, the way YOU design the page.With older versions (CSB3 and CSB4) the recommendation is to have the table fixed to the LEFT of the screen for some designs or fixed to the CENTER of the window (like my
SAMISITE HOME PAGE).
However with the introduction of CSB5, GS gave us a WONDERFUL gift! Tables that EXPAND to fit your page!This is the BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. Holds your images in place like tables, but the text adjusts to fill the screen!
This would please your partner and you don't have to rebuild!
This is how: (
PLEASE VISIT THIS PAGE FOR DEMOS AND INSTRUCTIONS!)
You build normal tables on normal pages just as you have always done.
Be sure to set your monitor resolution to the lowest YOU want to support as mentioned above, and make the tables fit THAT screen fine with no horizonal scroll bars. THEN you are ready for the REAL magic! Changing ONE setting causes that table to EXPAND when a visitor has a higher resolution than how you built the table. Right click the table, PROPERTIES, TABLE, SIZE AND ALIGNMENT TAB, Check the box for
WIDTH PERCENT. I tend to use 97% most. Leaves a bit of space to the right so the page is not crowded.
Change ONE table and check it. See what you think. Look at the page in your LOWEST resolution (base setting for the site). Then look at it again in a higher resolution. The table stretches, your page adjusts and everyone is happy! Best of all the images stay where you wanted. I use this technique on lambert's home page: lambertusa.com One large background image with a hidden table on top of it. Table is set to stretch.