WB PAGE SIZE

[tjs2902]

Hi All!I have just signed up to the forum and put an intro in the correct place, I hope.It seems to be a practice to have "norrow" web pages now-days. Covering about 70% of the viewable screen. You will see from my intro, I am very much concerned with accessibility and I know many visually impaired people have difficulty scanning across the entire width. Is this page width dimension taken care of with a margin element, say: width 70% margin-left 15%; margin-right 15%? I had a quick browse through the W3Schools resourses, but did not come up with anything that relates to the entire page, rather than elements within the page.Another point, I use a 22inch monitor, resolution currently set at 1680 X 1050. What is a good resolution to work in when designing for the web? I know screen reader users often have their resolution set at 800X 600, even now, although this is partly due to the cost of screen reader software and people tend to stick with older versions for as long as possible.I would be glad to hear your thoughts.Oldtone

[Skemcin]

Welcome to the forums.Setting how much space (or realestate) your web pages take up starts with the approach you take. If you are going to use tables to create the structure then you'll want to learn more about how to manipulate their widths - typically easier to use HTML attributes for the table tag then actual stylesheet definitions. However, if you choose to go the pure (or closely pure) all CSS route which primarily uses <div>'s then you will typically start with assigning attributes to the body tag like this:

<style>body {margin:0px auto;padding:10px;width:800px;}</style>

If your main target audience have visual disabilities, then you will want to learn more about using em for fonts rather than px to determine the size. The em notation is scalable where px is not. As you've already eluded to, percentages is better as well, so my example might better be width:90%; rather than width:800px;.All in all, the trickiest thing you will be dealing with working in images. Since images are based off of pixels, they are not scalable - so you will have to keep that in mind. In other words, if I have a logo that is 50x50 and you create a space for it using percentages. Then as the screen size gets bigger there is more space around it - so adding a background color tends to help fill that void. Likewise when the screen gets small - or a user magtnifies their font due to their poorer eye sight, text will take up more space and the images will not look proportionate - so you'll have to keep in mind how much space they take up and what information is in the image - being mindful of the fact that it will not scale too.Hope this helps - but let me know if you have more questions or concerns.

[tjs2902]

Thank-u Skemcin,That little mark-up for the whole body.......so simple, but effective. Although relatively new to web design, I have tended to steer clear of tables, except for just what they are intended, tabbed info. (I have probably got it wrong, but I thought tables and certainly frames were over-used and prefer to simply use html and CSS. But, that's why I logged in here, amongst people who know what they are talking about, so many thanks again. The site I am working on is aimed at anyone who offers a service or product to the public, (doctors surgery, shop, web site, hotel or whatever), as we offer training and access audits from an access point of view. So it is not aimed at visually impairted people or those with other forms of disability, but I would feel a bit of a "plonker" if I put up an in-accessible site, if you see what I mean. Tke care and have a good 2008!oldtone