Fixed layout

Okay, I'd posted about text box shifting. It came down to a "really 
shouldn't use fixed layout" advice. "Doesn't work."

Did a search on "fixed" and found that Nancy, Chuck, Anton, et al were
all 
in agreement.

So, here's my site: www.deansdesigns.com. If, and that's a big if, I want it 
to look like this, how would I do it? Anton said that there's many ways to 
"skin this cat." I've just happened upon this one. But it looks like
I'm 
just making a bloody mess out of the "cat."   ;-)

Any thots? 

Hi Dean,
If you work with sites long enough, you pretty much abandon fixed layouts or
absolutely positioned elements on html pages.  The browsers can't cope with
absolute positions unless you provide a whole lot of wriggle room.  People
manipulate their browser viewports to all different sizes and they often
change the default text sizes to make the pages more readable on their
particular screen settings.  This boils down to two things for all web
designers to reckon with:
1) you can't build web pages the way you do for print.
2) you can't count on site visitors having your exact computer set-up.

So you must build sites that work in all browsers, environments, platforms,
screen sizes etc...  BTW: the following link doesn't render well in Firefox,
Opera or Safari.  http://www.changeagentsinc.com/  So you must check your
pages in all the modern browsers and with different settings.

Don't overlap objects on web pages.  If you must place text on graphics, do
it in your image editor. Photoshop, PaintShop Pro and Gimp all use layers so
you can build a nice background layer, add your logo to the 2nd layer and a
slogan to the third layer.  Flatten the image and export or save for the web
as either a png, jpg or the nearly obsolete gif.

You can also slice and dice a design mockup into smaller parts that fit
inside layout regions on your page.  To give you an idea of what I mean,
look at my tutorial "working with layout regions."
http://www.alt-web.com/Tutorials/layouts.html

Don't be too dismayed about using dynamic layouts.  It may take a few hours
to re-distribute page elements so they don't overlap (indicated by a red x),
but it's time
well-spent.


--Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
www.alt-web.com





"Dean Stafford" <dean@deansdesigns.com> wrote in message
news:fr961s$mld9@flsun90netnews01.netobjects.com...
> Okay, I'd posted about text box shifting. It came down to a "really
> shouldn't use fixed layout" advice. "Doesn't work."
>
> Did a search on "fixed" and found that Nancy, Chuck, Anton, et al
were all
> in agreement.
>
> So, here's my site: www.deansdesigns.com. If, and that's a big if, I want
it
> to look like this, how would I do it? Anton said that there's many ways to
> "skin this cat." I've just happened upon this one. But it looks
like I'm
> just making a bloody mess out of the "cat."   ;-)
>
> Any thots?
>
>

here is what www.deansdesigns.com looks like in firefox when increasing text
size, this is why fixed layout should be avoided
-- 
Anton Strauss
www.videoproductions.com.au