I originally started with a 960 width. I have a feeling this width is a little ‘outdated’. I think in FWpro its not that hard to change, but before really doing this, I could overlook something, and therefore would like to share this here. Maybe someone who has done this before has a good idea, or some other suggestion…
Why I want to do this? I recently visited my site on a 27 inch and well… It looks hum… Tiny. Normally I use a MacBook or an iPad and then 960 is not so much an issue.
There’s no perfect solution but it’s a safe bet that, generally speaking, most people who use a large display probably do not have their browser window open wide enough to fill anywhere near the entire screen width and those that do probably don’t care how tiny a fixed-width site might appear. It looks odd and they know it looks odd but they do it anyway for their own reasons. I’m confident the majority use a much more reasonably sized browser window on a much smaller screen so you’re probably worrying about the minority. Even if you you were to build a liquid layout (one that stretches to fill the browser window) there are practical limits when it comes to readability. My advice: don’t worry about it.
Todd
I recently visited my site on a 27 inch and well… It looks hum… Tiny. Normally I use a MacBook or an iPad and then 960 is not so much an issue.
I would run with 960px. It’s kind of an industry standard for fixed width websites.
Unless you have a mobile version of your website, your mobile visitors will be forced to scroll/zoom their way around your website. If it is very wide, that annoying aspect will only be increased.
With that said, it depends on what your audience is using. Google Analytics will provide you will the needed stats. If you were to see that 95% of your visitors are using wide displays, then by all means go ahead and make it wider.
If you are sure you want to make your website wider, start with the master pages, then follow up by checking on all the individual pages. If they haven’t inherited the master settings, then you may need to adjust them individually in the inspector pane.
Like Todd, I don’t have a 27" monitor, but I do have two 20" Cinema displays side-by-side on my Mac Pro. That site looks mighty amazing at full (double) screen – it’s like two different pages in one screen.
Walter
On Jan 2, 2013, at 2:41 PM, David Owen wrote:
Todd
Try this site at full screen on a 27" monitor ROBOT…OR NOT?
Thanks Todd and Caleb, I think I will not change anything.
And David and Walter: what are your opinions? Because it seems to me that responsive design has it all, but I have a feeling FWPro alone is not suitable…for now. And then…what a lot of work to change my existing site! Or am I seeing this wrong?
FW does make building a responsive site more challenging than it might otherwise be because of how the app is designed to work so in that respect yes, it may be more work, assuming you already understand the ins and outs of building a responsive design. The other way to go about it which is easier to do in FW is to build separate mobile versions of your site and setup automatic redirects. There are of course pros and cons to this approach vs using @media queries which is how a responsive site is typically built.
Todd
Because it seems to me that responsive design has it all, but I have a feeling FWPro alone is not suitable…for now.
If you do want to go down this rabbit hole, I have a fairly recent Actions called BreakPoint that might be interesting to you. It could be modified to serve different stylesheets rather than to drop-kick you into a different site with a location.href redirect as it currently does. Let me know if you’re interested in that approach. You’d still need to do quite a bit of post-processing to get all the pieces together.
Walter
On Jan 2, 2013, at 3:28 PM, Todd wrote:
FW does make building a responsive site more challenging than it might otherwise be because of how the app is designed to work so in that respect yes, it may be more work, assuming you already understand the ins and outs of building a responsive design. The other way to go about it which is easier to do in FW is to build separate mobile versions of your site and setup automatic redirects. There are of course pros and cons to this approach vs using @media queries which is how a responsive site is typically built.
Until yesterday I had one - now it is a 15" Eizo coz it looks my iMac’s backlight has gone.
But anyway - I agree about not worrying about a 960 site. Sure monitor sizes are increasing but all that means is that more folk are running with more windows open side by side - as opposed to full width.
Even when the old 27 was working I very rarely used it at its 2560 x 1440 capacity - my eyesight just isn’t that good!
Having had a quick look at your site maybe you should think more about smaller screens rather than bigger. Mobile browsing numbers are increasing far faster than big screen desktops and it would probably be easier to do a mobile friendly version first until the tools (FW6?) can help out more with a full blown responsive one.
Walter, I am curious about Breakpoint. I would like to learn this, your help is appreciated.
I understand David’s suggestion concerning mobile browsing, but I feel having another (extra) mobile site complicates things; updating a new blogpost for instance.
David, concerning the blogpost, you’re right. Idealy I want to post every two days.
Besides the blogpost itself, I also update the general blogpage; there where recent blogposts as small announcements are located. So now I update two pages and with a added mobile site, I do four. I must say I tried a mobi, but with one text column on a page the result was that on an iPhone it scaled back. The column did not use the whole width (320). I think I did not use the correct pagesize or configurations. If I want to do it right, do you have any tips?
Maybe also on a quick (new blog) update on my general page? I use a table there.
This Action currently just redirects between different-sized versions of your site, so it’s not a good fit to your current needs.
You should also look at this one: ESS-Use External Style Sheet - ActionsForge which allows you to specify different media options and extra stylesheets. You’re still going to have a bit of a row upstream to override Freeway’s inline styles. Tim Plumb has an experimental Action called Exernalize which can hoover up the inline styles and move them into the style block where they are easier to override.
Walter
On Jan 2, 2013, at 3:57 PM, Wimdg wrote:
Walter, I am curious about Breakpoint. I would like to learn this, your help is appreciated.
I understand David’s suggestion concerning mobile browsing, but I feel having another (extra) mobile site complicates things; updating a new blogpost for instance.
Then it might be worth it in the long-term to put the time in and build a responsive site instead of a separate mobile version. It would certainly streamline the content updating process. This is one of the cons of using a separate mobile site I referred to earlier.
Todd
So now I update two pages and with a added mobile site, I do four.
Todd, I agree, only thing is, Freeway is (now) not suitable for a real good responsive design. I am not a handcoder so I keep on following posts here, and will maybe build a mobile version. But do not know exactly how; in terms of pagesize and config.
It’s true that FW can’t make it point-n-click simple, but it is possible. You could look at this as an opportunity to learn how to build a responsive design from the ground up and those are skills you can take with you no matter what tool you use.
Todd
Todd, I agree, only thing is, Freeway is (now) not suitable for a real good responsive design. I am not a handcoder so I keep on following posts here, and will maybe build a mobile version.
Wim, for what you are trying to accomplish, FreewayPro is more than suitable to do the job. When using FWPro in tandem with PulsePro CMS you are almost completely covered. Just add the Comments action ( Comments - ActionsForge ) to pages where you want give the opportunity to respond (Disqus) and you’re fine.