Simulating screen properties - Post...

User 369851 Photo


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I've had one or two people telling me that my web pages are difficult to read... but there have been only those couple of complaints over the past thirteen years.

Still, I'd like to be able to display my page the way they're seeing it. I thought CoffeeCup had a way to do this, but I found out it didn't after one person gave me the parameters of his screen and I couldn't find any way to do a simulation.

Even a Google search was unproductive. Does anyone know how to do this?
User 42578 Photo


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1,176 posts

What were the parameters you could not duplicate ??

Mike...
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http://www.wpdfd.com
User 369851 Photo


Registered User
5 posts

Well, I didn't really try because I was looking for a general solution.

However the person's parameters were:
1280x800 on a 14" LCD laptop screen.

I have a laptop myself that might very well be able to reproduce this. However it hasn't been fired up in months and I just KNOW that when I do, everything on it will scream for updates and I don't want to get into THAT! :-)

Besides, as I said, I would like to find a general method to do this.

Thanks
Gerry
User 355448 Photo


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3,144 posts

Gerry,

I use FireFox 2.0.0.5 with an addon that will resize my browser screen to the size I want. The addon comes with a default of 800x600 on a menu, but you can change that to any size you want. The addon is called Web Developer.

Bill
User 369851 Photo


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That's interesting, Bill.

If I install Firefox, will that have any impact on my use of IE7?

That concern is the reason I haven't tried it yet.
User 355448 Photo


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3,144 posts

Firefox will not interfere with your use of any other browser, unless you tell it to become the default.

I also have Opera and Netscape installed, and I can pick and choose as needed.

Bill
User 369851 Photo


Registered User
5 posts

That's great! I'll give it a try.

Thanks!
User 369851 Photo


Registered User
5 posts

There's one more thing bothering me:

If I set it to 1280x800 to match the guy's display, what if the diagonal size is not the same as his? Are we trying to get a one-to-one match with his LCD screen elements?

I'm not certain I've phrased that correctly.

I think I'm asking if I shouldn't strive to have each pixel represented by the same number of physical screen elements as he has.
User 355448 Photo


Ambassador
3,144 posts

The width is the dimension most are concerned with. Monitors generally have standard measurements and if you web page looks good in a full screen then that is all you can hope for. If you create your content to fix in a 800x600 window, I may have more toolbars than you expect, and drive your content below the bottom of the window.

I played around with my CSS file until I had the width correct to not have a bottom scroll bar when the window was 800px wide. Now I know someone with 800x600 screen can view it nicely with a vertical scroll, and it will still look the way I want it on screens with better resolutions.

If I create a window, I have full control over the size, and there is nothing you can really do to make your web site look great in my 100x100 window. So, just make your width suitable for the majority of your viewers and focus on making your content to bring them back.

Bill

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