fredoly,
The issue that you are seeing is not a problem with your computer or my web site...it's just an issue of screen resolution versus the size of the tables I elected to use when designing my web site.
When I revised my web site I first checked around a few forums dealing with web design and the topic of screen resolution was abundant. One such site had a poll that asked “What screen resolution do you use?” The survey yielded 648 respondents. The results are shown below:
640x480…0…0%
800x600…9…1.39%
1024x768…230…35.49%
1152x864…45…6.94%
1280x960…18…2.78%
1280x1024…190…29.32%
1600x1200…91…14.04%
2048x1539…5…0.77%
Other…60…9.26%
Older monitors and graphics cards used to support resolutions of 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 and perhaps higher in a few instances when more expensive monitors were purchased. However, now it is common place to achieve resolutions higher than 1600 x 1200 which, incidentally, is what I run on my Dell XPS 21” digital flat panel screen.
When I modified the pages of my web site I set the data in centered tables that are 950 pixels wide. Why? So anyone with a screen resolution setting of 1024x768 or higher (which, according to the poll above is 98.61% or the respondents) will be able to see the whole page in “one screen” without using scroll bars. When I view my web site on my computer it is centered in the screen and I see dead space on each side because I am using a screen resolution is 1600x1200 (i.e. my web page is 950 pixels wide, yet my screen is 1600 pixels, so I actually have 325 pixels on each side of the table I used for the web site). Does that make sense? Say, for example, you are using a screen resolution of 800x600. Your screen will only display 800 pixels worth of data…and since my table is 950 pixels wide, a scroll bar appears at the bottom so you can scroll from side to side to read all the data.
Now, mind you, I am no specialist in web design, and if I wrote anything that is incorrect I hope an expert can chime in and clarify…but this is the way I understand things.
True, 648 people is nothing compared to the millions of people that surf the web. However, like any poll, it represents a statistical slice of the population. Given that less than 2% use a screen setting of less than 1024x768…I elected to design my web with the majority in mind.
Thanks much and I hope this explanation clarifies things a bit???
