I'm curious what the best way is to make a site that's scalable?  I have an idea about how to build the tables to make it look the way I want, but I'm really wondering how you keep your content looking good?  So it doesn't get too stretched or smashed.

I wish it was possible to set a maximum and minimum table width that would expand or shrink to fit within the given range.  I'd like to have a site that will adjust down to 800x600 and have a maximum stretch of 1024x768.  If anyone knows a good way to do this, I'm very interested.

I've always made my sites a maximum of 760px to accomidate those running at 800x600, but with so many bigger monitors and higher resolutions used today, it can make the site look like it's all crammed in the center.  I like the way Web Wiz Guide stretches to fit and doesn't seem to get messed up.

Thanks for any suggestions...

CardMSG wrote: I wish it was possible to set a maximum and minimum table width that would expand or shrink to fit within the given range.  I'd like to have a site that will adjust down to 800x600 and have a maximum stretch of 1024x768.  If anyone knows a good way to do this, I'm very interested.

width="100%" makes the table stretch to whatever size the persons screen size is

instead of using fix sizes for your tables you put 100% or 99%.

This way it will work with any resolution

Everything HAS to get stretched to be able to expand to higher resolutions.

Just make sure that your main table has percents % for the table width, and also for the main TD's in your table. usually i do something like this:

<table width="95%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
 <tr>
  <td width="30%">
   <!-- this table is for the left navigation -->
   <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
    <tr>
     <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
     <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
   </table>
  </td>
  <td width="70%">
   <!-- this table is for the main body -->
   <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
    <tr>
     <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
     <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
   </table>
  </td>
 </tr>
</table>

CardMSG wrote: I understand the table can be set to a %, but the content in the table will get stretched if it's viewed at a higher resolution, so I was wondering if there were any tips to laying out the content so this didn't happen.

Use nested tables where some don't use % and one side (left or right) does. Then plan your content layout to stretch inside there.

Or you can just set one TD to an absolute amount and then let the rest stretch naturally:

<TABLE>
<TR>
 <TD width=200>
 no stretch
 </TD>

 <TD>
 
 stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot  stuff in here should stretch out a lot

 </TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>

Blah blah blah... I think you get the idea.

Or use CSS positioning if you're not too worried about users who have older browsers.

Much more powerful.

Cheers,
Andrew

Bunce wrote: Or use CSS positioning if you're not too worried about users who have older browsers. *snip*

Perfectly right. Check out w3.org and see how they do it. It's pretty slick.