how do you make a web page display properly on all screen resolutions and browsers?

Answer 1

Hi David!

This is a huge question, not with a single simple answer.

First, you want to test your code to make sure it is valid:

http://validator.w3.org/

Then test your CSS:

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

This will get a lot of problems taken care of right away.

Then, to test how things look, I use Firefox and use the Web Developers Toolbar by Chris Pederick:

http://chrispederick.com/work/web-developer/

This is a HUGE tool that has been an invaluable asset to me. I highly recommend it.

Now, since Firefox, Opera and Safari are all pretty close as far as how they render web pages, if you code and design for Firefox, the chances are that the pages will look the same in the other browsers.

Internet Explorer is a whole different scenario. IE 7 has improved quite a bit, however IE6 which is still heavily used, sucks.

You can find a multiple IE setup to test in multiple IE versions here:

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

I hope this helps get you started, and if you need any other help or direction, let me know via my site: http://ejcross.com

Answer 2

To make a webpage display properly on all screen resolutions you should limit the width to a maximum width of 800px.
This is relatively conservative and many sites use a width of 100 px.
Alternatively use css to create an 'elastic' layout which changes with the wídth of the screen (ie. width of 100%)
You can find quite a lot of tutorials about this or free-templates on the net.

To make a page display properly on all browsers is much more difficult. This is due to the fact that different current browsers interpret html, CSS and Javascript in (slightly) different ways. Older browsers will also not support more modern developments in these languages. The best way I know is simply to test your page on as many browsers you can.
There are certain tools to help you. Expensive as it is, Dreamweaver CS3 offers a tool for validating webpages (for example).

Hope this helps

Answer 3

Web sites must be designed to display properly on a screen of any size. That's part of the HTTP concept. If your page looks fine on one aspect ratio but bad on another, you need to change the design so that it looks acceptable on both. It is a fundamental rule of Web protocols that you don't have complete control over the display area at the client end of the connection. If you want precise, fixed layout, you need something like PDF.

Answer 4

"All" encompasses a lot. You can build a web page that displays properly on standards-compliant browsers by good use of xhtml and css, and by following current web standards.

Here's a good place to start:

http://www.456bereastreet.com/lab/developing_with_web_standards/

Answer 5

The popular browsers have different degrees of compatibility with the w3c standards, so you generally must write to the lowest common denominator.

Answer 6

I wish I knew

Answer 7

jgoulden is rite or you have to contact one of us and pay some fees.
lol