Sometime around 5/9/08 (at 22:28 +0200) Omar KN said:
A “Cc” goes to Dan J because it is based on his (otherwise) splendid
boxmodel.
A very gentlemanly and courteous thing to do. But probably best to
keep these things purely on the forum/list when we’re all talking
together, that’s how things generally work around here. I’m sure Dan
will be reading. 
Anyway, you said:
I was wondering what settings determine items to stick to browser’s
left side/ or not, when one stretches the browser window to the right.
This only becomes apparent in a large screen.
What you’re describing is either
(1) a centered layout, where the page content is presented centered
in the browser window (when the window is wider than your original
page design width), or
(2) a flexible layout, where layered items are given settings that
‘pin’ them to one side of the window or the other or let them stretch
to maintain some position relationship with both sides of the browser
window.
To make a centered layout, just choose Center from the Alignment
popup menu in the Inspector palette when inspecting the page itself.
To make a flexible layout the simple way, make sure the items you
want to work with are layered elements (so they’re positioned as
divs), select one, and play with the left/right/width controls in the
Dimensions pane in the Inspector palette. Click the buttons beside
the appropriate text fields to make different ones active or not.
Using the centered layout approach described above as (1) will
prevent any (2)-style flexible layout tricks from working, because
those rely on a flexible underlying width but the centered step wraps
things in a non-flexing page-width wrapper.
[Struggling inside the box(model)]
Working with the box model for layouts is a whole 'nother thing
entirely. I’ll leave the explanations to others, but I will ask this:
do you NEED to work with the box model approach?
This site http://www.thetypographic.com/lecture/ was made without
working with the box model. Different elements work (okay play) with
the browser window width - and height - in different ways. (After
flexing the window width, try scrolling down while looking at the nav
links on the left. Then use the ‘back to the top’ link.)
Yes, the box model approach to layout can lead to some damn clever
structures, but at this point in the game it isn’t always a
particularly visual or intuitive way to work.
Sorry, I don’t mean to put you off, really! But I do mean to say that
there are other ways…
k
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