Will the website that is created using Visual Site Designer be compatible with smartphone or ipad or ipad environment? Will the the site adjust with the size of the device? I know it takes some CSS and javascript to do that. It would be nice to have a template or the ability to quickly deliver a website that can be visible on those devices at its approximate screen size. Having a ready-made template for that purpose and something we can customize would be very handy.

You can create a mobile sized site in vsd and use a redirect script to detect the users screen size to send them to the correct site.

Hi Catherine (and Eric),

You CAN'T create a mobile site in VSD. VSD can create only so-called fixed-width sites (1000 pixels wide or whatever). So all VSD templates are fixed-width. For a mobile site you need a so-called fluid or adaptive design, a design that automatically adapts to the width of the screen it is connected to. Then you need a script that detects the OS - not the screen - (Android, Apple IOS, Blackberry, Symbian or whatever) of the device. When you make a fixed-width design for mobile devices, you either make it too small (one size fits all, so 320 pixels wide - looks bad) or too wide (you'll have to scroll horizontally or zoom in/out).

However, the HTML editor can do a fluid (or adaptive) design. It has several templates for this. So the best thing you can do is:

1: Make a fixed-width site with VSD. With a fixed-width design you can control the layout of your website much better. Make it for instance width a with of 900 pixels, so it is good for 99% of the monitors out there. The length doesn't matter much.

2: Make a fluid design with the HTML editor. Many parts of the HTML code generated by VSD can be re-used in the fluid design: you don't have to reinvent the wheel completely.

3: Use the VSD site as your main site for 'normal' desktop PC's, use the redirect script insite this site for redirecting to other situations.

Look here to see an example: www.harryniehof.com . It is written in the Dutch language, but you'll understand what I mean. Open the site on a desktop system and on a smartphone or on an iPad/iPhone, you'll see the difference. Look at the page source for the switch script (<script type="text/javascript" src="http://kramerican.dk/detectmyphone/handsetdetect-latest.js?websiteID=WP-QF5Y6W99-8D"></script>).

You can watch the mobile version on www.harryniehof.com/mobile and the Apple version on www.harryniehof.com/apple on your desktop and watch the design adapting itself automatically to the screen size by changing the size of your browser window.

Success, John

For what Eric said is quite viable especially for those who are not interested in coding. At least a mobile sized design is not a compromise of what also suits a large screen. Your image did not change size John.

Every time I look at the responsive mobile version the text requires a magnifying glass to read.
I am looking into many systems and all require a lot of compromise. I am seeing if adding media queries to VSD is possible. Like most WYSIWYG web builders they have to position absolute, the elements. Still there is always a solution.
In some ways it may be better for the visitor to choose a viewing experience out of a choice of 3 or 4 versions totally dedicated to that size.
With me the jury is still out, I would never run with the pack even though the majority says you should. My CMS system gets a browser to things that is not the normal way to do things.

When I finally adopt a responsive method it may not be the norm but it will work and hopefully I am smart enough to let VSD do it.

http://www.domainmonster.com/mobile-site/

I have deloreanjewellery.net set up with the option offered in the link above

Don't know if this is what people want, dont even know if it actually works

So you might want to try it for yourselves, domain monster offer it free with .com & .net domains, though i guess at renewal it will be chargeable ???

This may seem crazy but what if there were a step by step procedure instructing us (ME too) on how best to insert the scripted components for compatibility on iDevices?

Oh, and I need pictures not just some paragraph on what to do. Point click on what to put what in that box and press save… I am finding tons of stuff out there that build javascript (not flash) photo albums for example.