Various folks have written:
>The first thing i thought when i saw the
>re-design how it wasted screen space.
>>I like the new format and colorful approach but don't like the
>>fact the screen width is so small. Much of the material doesn't
>>fit and word wraps. It needs a wider format.
>>I use a 1024x768 density on a 17" monitor, which is not high tech
>>at all, and would like the option to allow the material to spread
>>across a larger screen. It seems to be aimed at 640x480 as the
>>optimum screen size. 640x480 has pretty much become obsolete.
>Hello....just "grow" your browser window...
>this is NOT rocket Science...
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Looking at the underlying HTML code, it appears that the pages themselves
(that big white space) are defined to be exactly 600 pixels wide. "Grow"ing
your browser won't change that. Maximizing the size of your browser on
screen will let you see the whole page width at one time, but it won't make
the page itself any wider or change the layout of the text and graphics on
the screen.
Since the page (again, the white space) is a fixed size, reducing the width
of the browser on your screen does NOT cause the contents of the web page to
"wordwrap". Instead, a horizontal scroll bar will appear - which means that
you have to scroll from side to side to see the entire contents of the page.
The advantage of a fixed size page is that it guarantees that the entire
width of the web page will appear on any screen at least 600 pixels wide
when the browser is maximized. The disadvantages are those reported above -
the page does not fill the entire screen for screens wider than the old
640x480 configuration. The greater the pixel height/width (like 1024x768,
for example), the "smaller" the VTR page will appear in comparison to the
size of the screen.
It isn't "rocket science", but there are always trade-offs. You can define
the size of the web page as a percentage of screen size, for example, but
then you have to worry about adjusting the size of graphics and text so that
the page "looks" the same to all viewers. Not an easy task.
Just my $00.02 . . .
Jim Hill
Madison WI
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