starter needs help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
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Guest

I'm new to FP, starting my 1st project, and have the following questions:

1. do i need to set up the size of my work 'stage' if I want my background
to be PLAIN WHITE color anyways? If so, what size should I set up so that I
will have enough space to scroll down when I want to include a longer page?
and where can I set it up?

2. What size of the work Stage is apropriate for the browser window to
simulate
monitor resolution, so that when you view the website on another computer
monitor, it will not shrink into a corner. Maybe this can be resolved not
only by Stage sizing but something else... ? I read another post about this,
but it's not quite clear.
 
A web page will always be as wide and long as it needs to be to
accommodate the content. There are no settings for this.

However, you should choose what page width to design for. Remember,
the screen resolution only sets the maximum width of the browser -
users with high resolution screens often use a browser opened as a
smaller window. And then there are sidebars to narrow the browser
width even more...

Either design for a fluid layout or fixed width. The fluid layout
will expand and contract according to the browser width, but the
disposition of objects (images, text etc.) will change as the browser
width changes. The fixed width layout will appear (more or less) the
same in all browsers.
For a fluid layout, use tables set to % widths, for a fixed width
layout, use tables set to a fixed width - 760px is the maximum for a
browser opened to 800px wide (used by over a third of all web users)

See http://www.thepattysite.com/window_sizes1.cfm for more
information
 
I'm new to FP, starting my 1st project, and have the following questions:

1. do i need to set up the size of my work 'stage' if I want my background
to be PLAIN WHITE color anyways? If so, what size should I set up so that I
will have enough space to scroll down when I want to include a longer page?
and where can I set it up?
Click to expand...

I am not familiar with this use of the word "stage" but there are two
questions here:

1. You should always specify a colour for the page background. Some
users have their window background set to grey or some other colour,
and to those users a page with "no" background colour can look
extremely messy.

2. You don't need to specify a height for your page. The more content
the page contains, the longer it will be, and the user's browser will
provide a scrollbar to permit scrolling down. If, however, you want
the whole of your page to fit into a single screen, bear in mind that
all users' screens and personal preferences are different. All you can
do is aim to make your page work as well as possible for everyone.
2. What size of the work Stage is apropriate for the browser window to
simulate
monitor resolution, so that when you view the website on another computer
monitor, it will not shrink into a corner. Maybe this can be resolved not
only by Stage sizing but something else... ? I read another post about this,
but it's not quite clear.
Click to expand...

If your page content is allowed to, it will try to fill the entire
screen width. Some users and some designers will like this, some most
decidedly won't. For your page to be displayed reasonably consistently
on a majority of browsers, aim to fit it into a width of 720-750px,
and it will look most comfortable if it is centred. You can use tables
for this.

Starting out with a blank screen, tell FP to insert a single-cell
(borderless) table 720px wide, and tell it you want it centered. Then
place *everything* inside this table. This can be text, images and,
most importantly of all, other tables. As you experiment you will find
that you need to restrain the width of the content of the table so it
never adds up to more than your chosen width of 720px. If you don't,
the width of your outer table will spread, and things will get pulled
unexpectedly out of shape.

There are plenty of places to read up on this subject, or you can
learn by trial and error until you get the results you want.

fido
 
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