New site screen size

[sawdustus]

Liked the old layout better, but will get used to the new one. What I don't like at all is the fact that I have to scroll over to the right to see the entire message and have to do it every time I go to a new page or message.

george

[Marsha]

GEEZ! After reading this thread I thought I was on the wrong forum, but alas I'm posting in this thread so I quess I'm where I belong. You folks all seem to be having rather annoying problems with the new site. I must be the luckiest person around here, because I am having none of them. I have no margins down the sides, no wasted space down the sides, no band down the middle of the screen, no scrolling right or left, everything fits my screen just like it always did. The site loads just as it always did, no faster, no slower. The info down the left side of the page has always been there, in fact on the old site there was stuff down both sides of the page, the advertisments from the right have been moved to the left, maybe that's why you're noticing the left side more.
By the way the monitor I'm using right now is 17" and the monitor I use at home is 19", there was no difference on either monitor.
I think perhaps the folks who are having a hard time should look at what the display settings in your control panel are, maybe you need to do some adjusting.
Good Luck with this, I would hate to see anyone leave, because they find the new site too annoying.
Bob, Shannon and the rest of the crew, keep up the good work, you're doing a great job, this is a great site and I for one send you a big
Marsha

[admin]

Just a note about the screen size. We went to a fixed width design as it is becoming standard convention with website designs. It allows us to be more aggressive with what we can do on the site as we know what we can and can't fit on a given page without getting into situations where images cover each other up, or text hangs weirdly while trying to wrap around images.

During the design process we did pull the statistics for visitor trending. Currently over 40% of our visitors use a monitor resolution less then or equal to 1024px wide. Because of this stat we decided to fit the width to this number.

As a few have suggested using the browser's zoom feature is nice to overcome this. For those that don't know, in Firefox and Internet Explorer you can click Ctrl+ + to zoom in, or Ctrl+ - to zoom out. For more advanced Firefox users I'd suggest using GreaseMonkey or another similar add-on where you can adjust the size individually. If anyone is interested in this PM me and I can offer some guidance.

With the move to this new site it makes site wide changes extremely flexible and faster to complete then in the past. We do keep tabs on visitor trending, and when we start to see new standard resolutions sizes (or at least a baseline) appearing we will definitely revisit this decision. Flat panel monitors are making this harder as most use a native resolution and thus don't standardize they way older CRTs did.

Along these lines we have seen a significant drop in people using dial-up to the site (down to about 3% this last month, +/- some margin or error). This and flash capabilities was paramount in the decision to include a dedicated video section on the new site. This is something we might not have done a year or two ago when that percentage was much higher. It's a really nice addition to the site. Because we have the framework for it in place now we are going to be producing a bunch more like Carole Rothman's from this past issue.

--Claudio

[jim_mex]

Hi Claudio - thanks for coming back on this point. I do understand both points you are making ref layout and screen size and also understand the need to cater for the minority at least whilst the percentage is at a reasonably high level. Probably I didn't take into account the complexity that a flexible layout would present to you. I guess like most of the visitors here my main focus is on the message board aspect of the site. Shame though, it would be nice to have that flexi option!

Dare I ask at what level that minority percentage has to drop to before you bump the screen size again -LOL!

Ref the use of GreaseMonkey in Firefox. I agree that this is more for advanced users to tweak aspects of the page. But to simply increase the text size its much better for the majority of users to use the Ctrl + or - keys as you suggest, or install a plugin such as Full Page Zoom to have a couple of toolbar icons handy to do the same job

Anyway - as I say, I do appreciate you going to the time to answer my initial query

[sgimbel]

Maybe I'm weird but I find little difference between the old and new way. The banner has moved left from right - who cares? Attachments seem to load just slightly slower but past that if the new layout helps Fox and the magizine more power to them.

[KtownScroller]

The new upgrade stinks! If some don't notice a difference, consider yourself lucky. For those of us with wide screens the new format is junk!

[sgimbel]

I run 17" and 25" monitors.

[KtownScroller]

Originally Posted by sgimbel

I run 17" and 25" monitors.

Wide screen? Resolution is the key. And you are running at what rez?

[Cutting Cathy]

Originally Posted by admin

As a few have suggested using the browser's zoom feature is nice to overcome this. For those that don't know, in Firefox and Internet Explorer you can click Ctrl+ + to zoom in, or Ctrl+ - to zoom out. For more advanced Firefox users I'd suggest using GreaseMonkey or another similar add-on where you can adjust the size individually. If anyone is interested in this PM me and I can offer some guidance.

--Claudio

So you say that using the browser's zoom feature is nice to overcome this??? Here is a screen shot of the new format not making any adjustments on my end, ie changing resolution, zooming in:

Screenshot.JPG

I have to scroll back and forth, back and forth to read the posts. The only scrolling I want to do is in my shop not back and forth on my computer!!


Here is what I have to look at when I use the Ctrl+ + to zoom in so I don't have to scroll back and forth, back and forth:

Screenshot2.JPG

This small of font is extremely hard to read!!

I use Mozilla Firefox and they have a feature called scrapbook which takes a "picture" of a page that you can keep in the scrapbook. I have from time to time captured pages on the forum and I just so happen to have the above page in my scrapbook. This is a screen shot of the old format:

Screenshot3.JPG

I took these screen shots with the page lined up the same as close as I could on each one. Make sure you open each attachment and click on the picture to get the full screen shot. Now which one would you rather read??

Now I've spoke my mind on this subject and will leave it at that. Hopefully someone will take all this into consideration when making final decisions on the new format.

[shadylady0447]

I have to agree with Cathy. The print is way too small. I'm not having the scrolling back and forth problem but the eye strain is giving me headaches. If I zoom to reduce the eye strain then I have the scrolling problem. I'm NOT on dial up and everything loads much slower than before. This started before the forum change with the gallery pictures and the black screen stuff. I tried to follow one of the videos by Steve Good and it just took too long. Went to his site and had no problem! I know Claudio is working hard to fix all of these problems and hopefully they will be fixed soon. Maybe just increase the default font size so we can read the posts without all the eye strain. Would this be a good size for you Cathy? Works for me but I don't think everyone will take the time to format their replies just for us! Thanks for listening!