Is my site OK for 800x600 & opinions please ?

[Joanna14]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading the posts here for a long time now getting tips and answers to most of my queries. Anyway, this is probably a really simple thing but my site doesn't seem to adjust for sites using 800x600. I know Actinic is setup so you can show 100% on the tables and it adjusts automatically, however, I'm wondering if I've done something wrong. Could someone please check and see if the right hand column is missed off on an 800x600 screen ?

Also, as I think my site is finally finished (are they ever finished !?!) & any opinions on the speed, layout or other points would be gladly welcomed - be as harsh as you like !!!

Thanks in advance
Joanna.

www.essentialoilsonline.co.uk

[Mike Hughes]

Yes, most of the RH column is missed out on when viewed at 800 x 600.

It's easy to see as your logo image is 850 wide and the page extends way beyond that.

I can't easily tell what's causing it as you have compacted code on your website so it's impossible to check your tables. At a guess I'd say that the total of the LH column + product column + RH column is more than 800. note that actinic can default to a site wide product column width of 570 and that may what's making the page too wide overall.

Mike

[Joanna14]

Hi Mike

Thanks for your reply, I didn't even think of the logo size - the simplest things heh !

Anyway, I've now reduced logo size to 800 and changed Actinic width to just under 500 to allow for columns and page is now smaller (still not sure if OK on 800x600), however, how are you able to get it full screen for 1024 (as it seems a little too compact on large screen now) and then reduce automatically for 800 ?

Or is this not possible ?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks in advance
Joanna.

www.essentialoilsonline.co.uk

ps. If anyone else would like to give opinions on the speed/layout of the site, I would be very grateful .....

[Classix]

In personal experience, if i wanted my site to fit into a 800x600 resalution i would generally make sure the design is no wider than 750 pixels.

I made my site width 100% so that it will look spiffy at 800X600 or 1280X1024

www.classixshop.com

[PaulC_Inkjet]

Yes I agree

On my site (not completed yet) - it automatically resizes the webpage to 800 pixels across and automatically lengthens the page down using the maximum length down the screen. Furthermore, it puts the whole page to the left hand side. Quite clever really! Its all simple javascript - you can nick it off my source code if you want.

I had a problem with my logo too as it was over 800 pixels accross - but you may come accross the following problem, if you set it to 800 pixels in width, and preview the site in 800x600, you will notice that there is still a scroll bar at the bottom as the page has again slightly overlapped to the right. This is because the width of the scrollbar on the right is also included in the width of the page. Very confusing. Its about 30 pixels wide. So all I did was made the whole page 770 pixels wide including the logo image. Then when this includes the scroll bar as well as the auto resizing of the screen, it all works pretty well. For further infomation - email: paul.carruthers@inkjetdirect.net

By the way - the site is running great and the design is very good.

[Joanna14]

Hi again

And thanks to Paul and Classix for your replies, they have both made it alot clearer.

However, after many hours of changing settings I'm still not able to get the screen right. I have changed the logo size to 770 width and all other width settings to 100%. The only setting left is the main body which on the Brochure and Main page which is set with CUSTOMVAR:ACTSTDWIDTH (Design, Options, Site Defaults it was set to 570). If I change this setting to 470 (side columns are about 300) so totalling the 770 is makes the left hand column really large to compensate for the big screen (in 1024). Ideally I'd like the middle section to adjust, however, if I remove the CUSTOMVAR and set it to 100% the middle column goes even smaller with the large gap on the left caused by the left hand column (I have not uploaded this site as it looks a bit silly).

The only way I can get the left column smaller is to put in a width of say 60 - but is this the right thing to do ?

Also, should I leave the CUSTOMVAR in and is there any way of setting this to 100% so all columns look even ?

Sorry to go on with this one but it's really baffling me !

Thanks in advance again
Joanna

[PaulC_Inkjet]

Hmmmmmm...........

The way you are doing it is different to my way. What I did was I edited the act-primary and other templates which are designed in exactly the same format (width etc). I edited them in Microsoft Frontpage as I found it easier to get my head round it rather than editing in HTML code and using Actinic's CUSTOMVAR's etc. However, this is probably not the way to do it and not maybe recommended from Actinic experts.

Nethertheless, I edited the pages within Frontpage so that instead of using %percentages such as one column a certain percentage width and the other a different percentage width and so on - instead I took the 770 pixels which was my width I had to work with, then partitioned it accordingly to each column. This is the way I did it and it is working great for me, however if you know what you are doing and if you are going to try this, back up all the files you are editing first.

A screenshot of this can be found here

[Joanna14]

Which template is shopping cart in ?

Hi

One last query, can someone please tell me which template the shopping cart is in and the name of it (ie the bit that shows the items : 0 and value: 0 in your cart whilst shopping) as I'd like to adjust the size of this to a set size. At the moment when I make the LH column 100% it makes the chopping cart stretch right across the whole column and it looks a bit wrong......

Thanks in advance
Joanna.

p.s. Also, just to say thanks (Paul) for replying to the queries, I have decided to compromise on the site. The Logo is at 770 and search bar adjusts to 800 screen, however, columns won't adjust evenly. So I've made it a little smaller all round (main pages) and hopefully at least some of the RH column will be seen, rather than missed off completely. In the meantime I'll keep trying different things......