Need A More Specific Opinion

[Mr. Krystal]

Alright, I'm working on a fairly generic theme for the Joomla installation and I have to make a decision very early here in the design process about the nature of the layout of the page.

We have 3 choices:

Completely fluid layout?

(Pros: Every area of the page resizes based on a percentage of the window width. Three columns.)

(Cons: Very hard to program. It will be easy for content to "fall out" of its containers resulting in a page that looks like it was poorly thought out.)

Partially fluid layout?

(Pros: The menu area will be a set width, exactly as big as it needs to be and the content area will expand based on the size of the window. Easier to program.)

(Cons: The third column stuff will have to be loaded underneath the navigation menu, no third column.)

Fixed-width layout?

(Pros: Very easy to program and fast to make. Can make sure that everything is exactly where you want it and how big you want it, meaning that we can have 3 columns... or 1 or 2 or whatever, it doesn't matter.)

(Cons: No matter how big your window is, the page is the same size.)

Here's an example of each:

Completely fluid layout

Partially fluid layout

Fixed-width layout

Keep in mind that these examples are simply to show the different forms of layout, not how our page will look or work. Please vote as soon as possible so I can get the basic page system going.

Edit:

Also, if you could post your screen resolution, I'd be greatful. This will help me determine the correct minimum width or the width of the page if we go with the fixed width layout.

[Kal]

I say partially-fluid. Do you really need a third column, anyway?

1152x864

[Guest PhazonFox]

I'm also going to say partially-fluid for now, but I'm curious what you think would be best for the site.

1280x800

[TakeWalker]

I'm going with partial. I don't quite understand all of that, but it seems to me like sometimes, you really need things to be a certain size, and sometimes, you really want there not to be a horizontal scrollbar.

Since I have a 600x800 resolution, I get those all the time. :(

[DZComposer]

Partially-fluid. Leaves more room for the content if we need it.

Currently at 1162x864. May be getting a new monitor soon, though.

[Ramuza]

Partially-fluid seems fine to me and for the screen size..

around 1280x800 for my screen

[Mr. Krystal]

Wow! Thanks for all your quick responses. I think partially fluid is the favored design, so I will steer it in that direction. Also, since TakeWalker and probably a few others here have the pretty much smallest available resolution, I'll make the minimum width 700 pixels.

[ArwingMaster]

I'm going to have to argee with everyone here. I just like the partial design better thant he others.

[XG Fox]

1280x1024 always and will be.

Though I'm confused at what I'm looking at on those 3 examples of layouts... o_O

[Mr. Krystal]

1280x1024 always and will be.

Though I'm confused at what I'm looking at on those 3 examples of layouts...

Try resizing each page and watch what happens to the size of each part of the page. That's the point we are voting on.

Edit:

Here's the really basic layout that you've voted for:

http://dwightdesign.com/temp/test1.html

[TakeWalker]

Ah! Well, now that I've messed around with them a bit, I can say the second choice is definitely the most natural-feeling. I'm, of course, most used to the third, but any change is a good one.

[XG Fox]

Ah, ok... now I see it. Second choice works great.