Resizing web pages

**Cyrad** · 03-30-2008, 02:58 AM

hi guys, i'm being paid to make a website for my school (my first website

)
the entire thing is finished but i have one problem. the entire website was built on one resolution, so people with a smaller resolution will have to scroll across to see all of it and the other way for larger. How to i get it to "stretch to fit" for each resolution (using dreamweaver)

many thanks

**bluemc** · 04-03-2008, 03:16 PM

you should be using tables..
make the main tables 100%

and it will fit to the width of the browser

should answer ur ?

**Cyrad** · 04-04-2008, 03:06 AM

Thanks blumec

this has really been bugging me for some time now.. THANKS!!!

**bells123** · 04-07-2008, 03:55 PM

bluemc, out of interest how would that be done using microsoft frontpage?

**Gilligan** · 06:58 PM

Just a note, tables are BAD for designing. Although not against the law.

Use CSS in this case, but still, use 100% width.

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>SGilligan.co.uk</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Your simple layout of html should look like that. Typically by default the width of the body should be set to 100%, but in this case it obviously isn't. So create a new page (CSS Stylesheet) and called it body.css. Inside it, put this code.

Code:

body {width:100%;}

Then in your html, in the head section, place this line.

Code:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" src="body.css">

So a finished layout of html with this link should look like this (or close to):

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>SGilligan.co.uk</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" src="body.css">
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Hope that helped, feel free to ask questions if you're stuck

**nyef** · 04-07-2008, 05:56 PM

What you told him would set the body element to a width of exactly 100 pixels. Probably not what he wants. I think you meant this:

Code:

body {width:100%;}

However it's more common (and more professional looking in my opinion since you don't have multiple resolutions to design for) to have a fixed width page, and just center it in the browser so that it looks decent at any resolution but won't cause horizontal scrolling at low resolutions:

Code:

body {width:780px;margin:0 auto;}

Or 1024px or 1280px (minus a few for the window borders) if you're confident your visitors will not have very low resolutions.

**nyef** · 04-07-2008, 05:58 PM

You are absolutely right though about tables being an outdated and generally ugly way to design a webpage. Causes unnecessary bloat, and is harder to read. Definitely use CSS to solve your problem, no matter how you go about it.

**dansgalaxy** · 04-07-2008, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Just a note, tables are BAD for designing. Although not against the law.

Use CSS in this case, but still, use 100% width.

Im so glad you said that.

but sorry disagree, but it is against the law.

>< you need conversion...

**Gilligan** · 04-07-2008, 06:59 PM

lol, so you'll be fined for using tables?

**dansgalaxy** · 04-07-2008, 07:24 PM

In my world.

(psss LadyNRed is presedent)

**LadynRed** · 04-07-2008, 08:08 PM

That's right !

**Gilligan** · 04-08-2008, 05:50 AM

woah, tables are even mentioned in her sig.

"Tables Be Gone"

**dansgalaxy** · 04-08-2008, 05:53 AM

(i think she should add Dansgalaxy World President... lol)

*bows before LNR*

**sarab** · 04-08-2008, 08:05 AM

Ha ha... great thread, but, back in the real world -

How about an existing website, original design started in 2003, now containing 141 fairly information-dense pages and done in tables.

Just unfortunate, leave as is? Or worth the effort?

Seems an awful lot of work for me and my friend, and what'll it achieve?

I'm interested to know...

**ambose** · 04-10-2008, 05:32 PM

hi,
If you can't resize your web page. I will help you. For resizing of your web page and any other problem you can contact 'Web Design Iowa'. You can solve all your problems with it.

Regards,
ambrose

Jordancreekdesign.com/

**Gilligan** · 04-10-2008, 06:00 PM

wow, seriously, advertising like that?

Isn't this forum supposed to help webmasters having problems? Not to offer them your services..

Anyway, tables are bad.

**Lpspider** · 04-10-2008, 11:30 PM

Your school let you design their website when you've never done it before?!

**dansgalaxy** · 04-11-2008, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lpspider

Your school let you design their website when you've never done it before?!

O you would be suprised... I remember a guy on here looking for help because he was doing his COUNCIL website i mean come on... SERIOUSLY?! and he had no proper knowledge just used dreamweaver which made it look awful in most browsers just a shiver moment ><

anyway.

**JoWiGo** · 04-11-2008, 05:31 AM

Wait, someone actually SUGGESTED using tables? Oh dear... Cyrad feel free to use tables for your first site if there is a deadline and you need to get it done in the immediate future, but keep in mind for your future sites that CSS is the way to go. Your post was questioning resizability (is that a word?) and that is one area where CSS excels.