Be gentle! On second thoughts, give it all you've got!

[Paul Carmel]

julesb, thank you for your input, and no you are not a dozy woman. And thank you Marcus for having a second look.

I guess this is a case of you can't be all things to all computers,
And if there was a one size fits all we would all be using it.

[julesb]

Hi Jules again - it is a layout problem - not technical problem. The links box didn't disappear, it was just that because I had scrolled right + then gone up, it was outside of the margins of my screen display - I then forgot that I had my cursor scrolled totally to the right so could not find the box. It was only by accident that I moved the cursor left again + that showed the links box.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that difficulties arise and things can be missed if the page size is larger than the screen size. I don't think this matters to most people, but I either miss things (as in this case) or get frustrated having to keep scrolling L + R to see the whole page content.

Jules

[marcus]

Jules,
Can your screen be reset to 1024 * 768 instead of, I imagine, 800 wide? That would solve most of your problems I think. Unfortunately there are a lot of sites designed around 1024 minimum width nowadays. (I don't know the english 'windows' commands, but it will be something like control panel, display, parameters where you would need to look) May not be possible with an older screen, however.
A disturbing number of our visitors have screens 1200 wide, and I can't test that here, so I wonder sometimes how our sites look as well. In principle they should be fine, but in reality...?

Cheers
Marcus

[Paul Carmel]

julesb,

What size screen are you working on?

[marcus]

Ooh can I make a wish now? We both said the same thing at the same time. I wish for...no I'm not telling. It doesn't involve peace and goodwill though...

[Alan Knighting]

Paul,

Using Windows XP Pro I have viewed your site in IE, Netscape and Firefox (all the latest versions) and it displays perfectly, and quickly, in each one. The only horizontal scrolling necessary is if I am displaying a side bar, e.g. Favorites, in IE.

My screen is currently set at 1024x768 and 24 bit colour.

If you think it is important to check your site's display and functionality on multiple browsers on multiple operating systems you can do so at http://www.browsercam.com/. It is not a free service and is probably "over the top" in the circumstances but I think they offer a 24 hour evaluation which might do the trick for you.

Alan

[julesb]

the screen size is 800x 600 pixels - tried to alter as Marcus suggested but will not do it!

Jules

[Alan Knighting]

the screen size is 800x 600 pixels - tried to alter as Marcus suggested but will not do it!

I think we now have the answer. If you can not set your display to 1024x768 it is because your video display card is incapable of supporting the higher resolutions.

To be very blunt, Paul does not have a problem, you do. An easy fix would be a new video display card and they are not expensive these days.

Alan

[marcus]

Alan,
Usually I would be inclined to disagree with that - on the grounds that a website should be designed for as many users as possible. BUT I just looked at our stats and find that only 3% still use 800*600, so I wouldn't worry at all in future if they need to scroll around a bit (sorry Jules)

Likewise all concerns about how things look in Netscape 4, IE 5 and so on. I completely ignore the issue, because the number of people using these is now tiny. If 1% or less of visitors can't see it properly, I am not even slightly concerned and as it only takes 5 minutes to upgrade I blame the user not myself.

It simply isn't worth the extra work to cater for such a small number of people. I don't yet, but will soon, take the same view with 800*600 screens. What does anyone else do?

[Alan Knighting]

Marcus,

There's a lot to be said for backward compatibility but if that means catering for a microscopic minority at the cost of the overwhelming majority I don’t go along with it. I refuse to proceed at the rate of the slowest ship in the convoy.

It’s all well and good if both can be catered for at the same time. Otherwise, it’s up to the microscopic minority to catch up.

Alan

[julesb]

Sorry if I caused a stir - as our lap-top XP died a death we have had to return to our old PC - I forget anything more than a year old is often way out of date! I will know not to complain about having to scroll left + right from now on.

Love impoverished IT relation

[Paul Carmel]

No worrys! don't be As it's the only way we all learn...........and I have a long way to go.

[Paul Carmel]

In a bid to make our site a bit faster I ran all our photos though the following free online photo re-sizer

http://bigwebpages.com/big/resize.html

I think it's worked rather well as the quality of the shots are better and the speed is a bit faster. If anyone is on dial up could you let me know how it is for you?

[Alan Knighting]

Paul,

I switched back to a dial-up connection and found that your Website and its pictures loaded very quickly indeed. If a site is properly optimised, why should it be otherwise?

Alan

[Paul Carmel]

Alan,

Thank you for that! BTW fluffy-is-not-a-feeloader.com is still available. How you getting on with that?