Resolution

myriad,

Not really, or better yet, not a nice way that I know of. There maybe somebody smarter here that can tell you differently but I pretty sure the answer is no.

John

Yes and no. If you want to force the page to display at no greater than 800X600, just set the entire layout in an 800 pixel wide table. That keeps it from streching to 1024X728 or higher. However, it makes it terribly hard to view on a 640X480 screen.

The thing I find hardest about design is the dilemma over differing screen resolutions. What looks good at 1024X728 or higher often looks terrible at 640X480 or vice versa. So, there are 2 schools of thought. One is to use a "stretchable" design. That makes the page fill the entire browser window no-matter what resolution the surfer is using. The other is to design for a specific fixed-width, say 800X600 since it's the most common.

Stretchable design:

Pros:
No wasted space in any resolution
Works okay in all resolutions
Cons:
Lose control of absolute element positioning

Fixed width:

Pros:
Absolute control over appearance.
Cons:
Only looks right in the resolution targeted. Tends to waste space in higher resolution and force side-scrolling in lower resolution.

Personally, as a surfer I hate sites that design fixed-width since they're all set up to for either 800X600 or 640X480 and I use 1280X1024. So I'm stuck with huge amounts of wasted space. I spent a lot of money on a large monitor and I don't like site designers telling me that I can't use that extra space.

As a designer, I find the stretchable design to be the lesser of two evils. You can't get such a precise lay-out, but it offends fewer visitors. With a little extra work you can get things to look okay in all the major resolutions and "close enough" 100% of the time is better than perfect 50% of the time and totally awful the other 50%.

If you want to get really really advanced, you can design 3 different versions of your site in 3 different fixed-width resolutions, one each for 640X480, 800X600 and 1024X728. That allows the greatest control over layout and positioning for any given resolution, but it adds a lot of complexity to the site and makes remodels and absolute nightmare.

[This message has been edited by Maverick (edited 26 March 2000).]

Just a comment on 'absolute control'.

To be 'absolute' you have better use CSS for element control, especially font presentation because some people actually change the font size (d*mn users are never satisfied). So what look good with the 'average' size becomes unreadable at 'smallest' and ends up with about four words per line when at 'largest' (options with IE5) NS offers an even larger range of font size presentation.

Font size control at the pixel level really belongs with the user, not the designer. As I posted here before... just because youthful eyes can read it, doesn't mean old eyes can read it. It's an accesibility issue.

CSS is intended to control the style, not force everyone to 'see it your way'.

And in IE5 - there's an option to override styles anyway.

You could always open a new window without toolbars and set the width to 800x600. Many graphic designers choose this method. If you do it this way make sure you include scrollbars for smaller screens.