widescreen's & web development

aphex™

I'm in the market for a Laptop, but alot of the ones i'm considering looking at (dell, HP) are widescreen (most top spec ones are, seems) .

Now i'm going to be making a few websites in the coming months, so this might pose a problem for layout reasons, ie. not enough info at first glance on screen, websites looking completely different on 99.99% of screens.

So my question is- should i steer completly away from these evil (and bloody pointless) screens, or should i make do, and would i have to spend extra time making sure things are looking ok?

Or am i completly wrong? Do they pose any awkward problems for development? Do things really look that different on normal screens?
:eek:
cheers

Enygma

Get the Web Developer extension for Firefox and you can resize the window to any screen size. Should do the trick.

Shrimp

Is it actually possible to do that in firefox? How does it work? Sounds very handy for us Web Developers

talos

Is it actually possible to do that in firefox? How does it work?

Yes. Go to firefox extensions ,
after you install, just click "Resize" -> "Custom Size" :cool:

Shrimp

Thanks,

BTW, Who gave me a Negative Rep. Point on this thread? What did I Do?

Shrimp

Well I have developed some site's so therefore i am a web developer

Figment

I believe there is also a web dev tool bar for IE that will do that as well however i use firefox as well so i am not certin.

Seth Brundle

Y o u s s e f wrote:

Well I have developed some site's so therefore i am a web developer

who said you weren't?

Shrimp

Someone gave me a Negative Reputation point saying:

"Web Developer my ass"

I figured they would be reading this thread because it was on this thread that they gave me the point. They know who they are!!

Seth Brundle

the bounder, the rotten cad, name and shame I say!

sceptre

Y o u s s e f wrote:

Well I have developed some site's so therefore i am a web developer

That A->B logic really only holds for people who once got paid for sex.

Many people are protective of their respective disciplines (especially if they've some qualifications or considerable experience) and you can't really blame them for that - building a soap box racer doesn't give someone the right to call themselves a mechanic. I've no idea of your experience, extensive or otherwise but you can at least see what I'm saying.

(incidentally twaddn't me who gave you negative points)

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

aphex™

Well, i think we can call this thread well and truly ruined. Any of you so-called "web developers/ designers/ interweb interface html technicians- whatever you want" like to add anything on the orginal topic?

And no youssef- was'nt me either

Shrimp

aphex&#8482 wrote:

And no youssef- wasn't me either

sceptre wrote:

(incidentally twaddn't me who gave you negative points)

I'm not on the hunt for the guy/girl that gave me the points so relax

Thanks a lot for the replies anyway.

---

Now, to get back to the Original Topic...

The question, wide-screen's & web development?

Personally I have a small, but functional 12" Laptop, it's at 1024x768 and isn't wide-screen. On it, I designed a web page that would soon be on my examiners wide-screen laptop. When the examiner went to examine it he used his laptop, and to be honest there was no major difference in layout, If any. Our examiner is also a web designer by trade, I've seen him use the wide-screen to design pages and have also seen them on normal screens, there's not much difference.

I personally find it helps a lot, that when designing a web-page to keep in mind that not everyone will be viewing it at the same Resolution, Inch Screen, Browser, etc. as you may have originally planned it on. So even if you designed it to look perfect on Wide-screen and Non-Wide-screen there are still many other factors that could change the appearance of the site.

I hope that was helpful in some way.

Thanks for reading,

Youssef

aphex™

Y o u s s e f wrote:

I
I hope that was helpful in some way.

Yes, it did. Thanks.I ordered a dell the other day, so that means i've no idea if it'll have a widescreen or not

Ah well i'm sure it'll be grand [or nearly 2 - poor old credit card] . Thanks for the replies.

:cool:

dynamic.ie

Hi there,

I've got a HP Pavilion zd7000 series laptop. All top spec with a 17" wide screen. To tell you the truth, it's brilliant! Loads of space when designing a site or messing around with graphics. As I am primarily a "web developer" I have loads of room on screen to view all my code and it beats my old 14.1" normal screen to the wall. I would definetely recommend it getting a widescreen. Also, with this model, there's a full size keyboard (number pad) which comes in very handy. Another good point is that it looks great at client meetings. I have had a lot of new/existing clients comment on my laptop and I think it reassures them a little that you are using the latest technology, etc. I don't know exactly but I know it has helped to look the part as well as play the part!!!

It terms of working within standard sizes... I run my screen resolution at 1440x900. A totally strange resolution in terms of web design. Two things I work to always:

1. Designing in Fireworks/Photoshop... set the size of the design template to around 750x500 so that when you export it won't be exporting graphics that are too big for a 800x600 window.

2. Testing in Browser... use Firefox's automatic screen size changer (mentioned already) to test in different sizes. I resize other browsers to that size manually... pain in the arse so if there is a tool in IE and other browsers, I'd love to hear about it.

Any best of luck with choosing a laptop...

Cheeurs,

Dave