Three-column website layout?

[dorayme]

Hi Dorayme,

Do you think that this particular template would be better served
with the width in px rather than em for the flanking columns? I have
seen this done almost as a convention in other sites, but it seems to
often break the layout at more extreme text resizing. I guess this has
to balance against the content being squeezed, as you mentioned.

I was not actually saying it would be better, it depends on the
content of the three sections, how important they are and many
things. Everything depends. If you are dead set on a template,
you sometimes need to make adjustments to the things filling the
template. For example, you really, really want em for left. Fine,
then make the links nice and short and choose a smaller em width
for the div and content margin to minimise the problem mentioned
(of the unwelcome squeeze on the content width). Have tighter
left margin/padding for the left links not to use up so much
space...

Even consider max-widths and so on as aids. And now IE <7 will
have trouble, so maybe a hack or two and so on. I am basically
saying that there are no magic bullets in templates, the OP
wanted to avoid hacks and tricks and so on. But it is a naive
hope and looking at your nice template might (I think has!) given
him hope of avoiding tricks. But he does not know what a tricky
world this is.

The genius of some designers is that they work a path through
things and go for it stoutly and faults can be forgiven because
by and large so many good things are achieved. This is not an
easy thing to do. Requires skill, confidence and courage.

I am using these templates as a learning tool for myself, perhaps I
should not have proffered it as an example until I am a little more
sure of myself

It is nice and clean and admirable. I mean it. (It is something I
have recommended to be entered into the collection of Plato's
Forms).

Keep making these, make a whole set with similar material but
with px for say a left nav, maybe for right too and em for maybe
just right spiel area (where the material might not be just
simple short links). Make one with absolute positioning too. They
will make an excellent starting point for people.

[Small thing Andrew, bit of a sensitive issue, it is a small "d"
in my name.... ]

 

[Ikke]

I find that I have no trouble writing pages that display properly in
all browsers, so long as I don't try for the unobtainable 'pixel
perfect' layout, and don't use any kind of (any) browser-specific
code.

Since I switched from table based layout to css, I've tried to do this,
but I still have this tendency to go for the pixel perfect type layout.

I don't care if one browser has .. oh .. a three-pixel difference in a
margin somewhere. Design a flexible layout and that is not an issue.

That's what I'm trying to learn - tiny differences do not matter, as
long as the result can be shown in all browsers.

Tell those clients to find a developer who works exclusively in
ActiveX. Be sure to mention that he might as well turn off the web
server for about two or three months every year - as that is about how
much business he will lose with an IE-only site.

Bit of a problem: I don't get to choose the clients, because I work for
a software company. So whatever the client wants, the client gets
according to my manager. That does not mean I have to agree

What *is* it with some of these clients? If they know so much, why
don't they write their own sites? My clients came to me because they
don't know anything about designing web sites.

Those are the clients I like to work for - people who know what they
want, but don't know how to create it.

Alas, they are not all like that.

Thanks,

Ikke

 

[Ikke]

Hi Ikke,

Glad this will be useful to you. Of course the template represents a
very basic beginning only and will no doubt need to be modified as
content is added.

I'm altering the template at the moment to suit my website - most of the
content is text and tabular data, so it won't be too much a problem I
guess.

Thanks again,

Ikke