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JL, 17 May 2007 By the way...
![]() I
was out of town for a few days, and while I was gone I had cause
to use a hotel computer. I wanted to email some photos,
otherwise
I would have just stayed in my room and watched a movie, and been none
the wiser for what was about to befall me.
Well, imagine my surprise when I saw my website on a 17" screen instead of the 13" that I use at home. The depths of humiliation! Buttons and text twisted this way and that. Tables and text thrown against the left margin. My apologies to any dedicated readers who have been slogging through it, and of course, sorry for the ones who couldn't stand it and are long gone. I just didn't know. After coming home I spent 12 hours straight going through all the pages, repairing everything I could remember seeing, so the pages should look sane on any size screen. I thought I was finally finished when, as a casual afterthought, I went to test them in Internet Explorer. I should have known IE would not let me off easy. More things off-center, page parts slung across a variety of horizontal positionings. I did not design it this way. When I looked on the web for guidance on said issues, all I could find were articles about how IE is lagging behind other browser development, or unspecific references to how Internet Explorer has caused alot of grief to web page designers over many years. Yes, we know that for sure. As you can see, this is a simple web page. What could be so difficult? After a few more hours (i.e. the sun had come up) I had fixed a few more problems. I've made every compromise I can think of, and even ones I'm not happy with. But if you can read through a page without thinking "Who is this dork?" I'm making progress. Three days later - I have now
borrowed a 17" inch screen to check my
work, and I believe it's all in order now. If not,
please
feel free to write. The original problem seems to have been
an
issue of different screen resolutions rather than differing sizes.
Anyone viewing on a 1024 x 768 in Firefox could enjoy the
view.
Everyone else's experience would have been "interesting" at
best.
I've tried to accomodate as many different
combinations and permutations as possible now.
(Idea for future article: 20 things not-to-do when building a website) Also, in the reconstruction zone: I made changes to the rss feed, which I find, after the fact, confused the blog directories, which have now re-dated the entries according to the date and time of change, burying newer articles further down the list. Small matter, as the articles are listed on the JLog index page. Anyone who's using an rss reader and doesn't know that, though, might have missed a few, including the head's up about Autostitch and BlogBridge, two best things since sliced bread. I try to segue into small improvements rather than jumping into radical departures. Even then, the results can be surprising. When you're ready to start your own website you too can share in similar joys... |