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THE INTERNET TUTOR
July 20, 2006
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This week...
- Webmaster Tip: Screen Resolution
- Surfin' the Web: YouThink!
- Software Spotlight: 1000 Questions for Couples
- The Oddball Wall: Who Said It?
- Computer Tip: Print Files Without Opening Them
Here's a joke my little grandson told me.
Little Johnny was in class and the teacher told him to look out
the window and see if he see the trees. Johnny did, and said he
could. The teacher asked him if he could see the grass. Johnny
said yes. The teacher asked him if he could see the clouds.
Johnny again said yes.
Then the teacher asked him if he could see God. Johnny looked,
but answered no. The teacher said, "that's because there is no
God."
Just then little Julie asked Johnny if he saw the teacher. Johnny
said yes. Julie asked him if he saw the teachers shoes. Johnny
said yes. Then Julie asked him if he saw the teachers brain.
Johnny said no.
Julie said, "that's because he doesn't have one."
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Ahhh... My Hard Drive Just Crashed...
These are words none of us ever want to scream. But it
happened to me. Unfortunately I learned the hard way and
did not have a back up of my data. WHY? Well I always
thought it was hard to do and that you needed to buy add-
itional hardware. And then the worst part was restoring
from your backup.
Well I found the perfect product and the BEST part is you
can get it for just the cost of s&h... $5.99. It retails
for $39.99, but we know how important your data is to you
and wanted to give everyone the chance to own this CDRom
called RestoreIT.
"RestoreIT... You simply CAN NOT afford to be without it."
- TechGeek Monthly
Get it for just $5.99 s&h, by visiting:
RestoreIT Deluxe Edition
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WEBMASTER TIP - Screen Resolution
Note: In code examples I add a period after each left arrow
bracket so the code can be viewed in all e-mail programs. If
you copy and paste, be sure to remove the periods or it won't
work.
Question: What screen resolution should design our sites for?
Simon Says: Below is a chart of the most common screen resolutions
of 160,000 unique visitors to my web site about a year ago. These
stats closely resembled the stats I'd seen from other sources with
an even larger sampling, so I think they were fairly reliable then.
Now, the percentages have probably grown for higher resolutions
and gone down for lower resolutions since that has been a trend for
several years.
Resolution Users
1024 x 768 55.3%
800 x 600 25.9%
1280 x 1024 13.4%
1152 x 864 3.1%
640 x 480 0.6%
All Others 1.5%
The numbers don't quite add up to 100% because of rounding. If you
add it up, 97.7% of the visitors to my site had a screen resolution
of 800 x 600 or higher. You still hear a lot of talk about designing
for a 640 x 480 resolution so a large segment of your visitors won't
have to scroll sideways. I hardly think approximately 1/2 of one
percent is a large segment.
If you're using a fixed width design, if you design it for an 800 x
600 resolution your site will look good for almost 98% of your
visitors. If you design it for a 640 x 480 resolution, your web page
is only going to fill about half the screen for the majority of your
visitors, and the higher the resolution, the sillier that looks. You
decide if that wise, but I gave up on designing for 640 x 480 years
ago.
When it comes to designing a site that optimizes the screen real
estate for everyone, including the 640 x 480 group, you would have
to use liquid design, which is a design that expands and contracts
to fit the resolution of the computer displaying the site. While
that sounds like a great idea, it's not as easy to do as it sounds
and have it look as good as you'd like.
One of the problems with designing to use the maximum real estate on
all computers while having no horizontal scroll bars, is that at very
high resolutions the lines of text can be so long it makes paragraphs
of text difficult to read. If you divide page into columns to
compensate for that, at the lowest resolution the columns can be so
narrow it can look just plain dumb.
Some advocate coding all the content into a table that uses a
percentage of the page width, but what does that gain you if you're
trying to maximize a design for 640 x 480? Using a percentage only
cuts down the available space where space is already lacking!
My preference is to not use liquid design, which flies in the face
of some purists, but what have they done for me lately? Nothing that
I'm aware of, so nuts to them! ;-)
This brings us back to using a fixed width design. I do have a smart
twist to the fixed width design. The twist is to have the main page
content fit in the first 600 pixels so those at a low resolution can
read the entire main page body without scrolling horizontally, then
place a smaller column on the right hand side where you can include a
narrow column of content such as adverting, newsletter sign-up forms,
etc. Low resolution users would have to scroll sideways to see the
side column, but not to read the main content. To my way of thinking,
this compromise is the most intelligent design that will work
reasonably well for all resolutions.
One final note on screen resolution, if you do like I do and design
for a fixed width, say 800 x 600 for example, that doesn't mean you
have 800 pixels of horizontal space to work with. Remember, the scroll
bar takes up about 22 pixels, so plan on keeping your horizontal width
about 30 pixels less to be safe.
That's the solution to the resolution confusion.
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NEW DISCOVERY LOWERS CHOLESTEROL QUICKLY, NATURALLY
PRINCETON, NJ - A clinical study at UCLA confirms that a
safe, natural supplement reduces cholesterol absorption
40% or more with no side effects. Says CholesterolWatchers
Medical Director Dr. Arlene Donar, "With high cholesterol
you need to do something now. Take it with meals and..."
Lower your cholesterol naturally
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SURFIN' THE WEB - YouThink!
You think about the world.
You care about the world.
You are ready to act to make it a better place but need to learn
more about the issues at stake -- this is where YouThink! comes
into play.
Whether you want to learn more about conflict, education, health,
the environment, free trade or other global issues, YouThink! is
a good place to start.
http://youthink.worldbank.org/
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GopherCentral's Question of the Week
Do you support the Israeli military invasion of Lebanon?
Please share your opinion, visit: The Question of the Week
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SOFTWARE SPOTLIGHT - 1000 Questions for Couples
The quality of our lives has a direct parallel to of the quality
of our relationships. One of our most important relationships is
that with our spouse or significant other. Yet, according to the
CDC, 43% of first time marriages end in divorce or separation
within 15 years.
Marriage doesn't have to be the crap shoot most people turn it
into. The trouble is prospective couples is that fail to ask each
other the right questions. If they did, they'd know each other
better than 99% of all other couples.
1000 Questions for Couples contains the crucial questions you must
know the answer to if you want to go into a marriage with a better
than average chance of happiness and success. Over 700 of the
questions can help married couples strengthen their relationship.
Why gamble with your future? Get it right the first time, or next
time if you're divorced, or in your current relationship and create
the future you deserve.
http://snipurl.com/relate
Note: I do not provide support for the featured software. Contact
the software vendor for support. No warranty is made or implied as
to the usefulness or appropriateness of featured software.
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GINSU KNIVES (Lowest Price EVER)
Store Price: $19.99
DEAL PRICE: $2.99
Famous Ginsu Knife Set... Even our regular price of $19.99
is so much cheaper than what you would pay on TV.
You've seen them on TV, now you can own a set of your own
for only $2.99. These Ginsu Knives are legendary for their
ability to cut through just about anything and stay sharp.
And in this 10 piece set you will get:
*One Meat Cleaver/Turkey Carver/Bread Slicer
*One Paring Knife
*One Fruit and Vegetable Knife
*One Utility Knife
*And Six Steak Knives
This same set can be sold in stores for as much as $30, but
through this exclusive, last chance offer you can get the
complete set for JUST $2.99. Check them out by visiting:
Famous Ginsu Knife Set
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THE ODDBALL WALL - Who Said It?
We haven't had a Who Said It? quotation quiz in quite a while.
It's time to feature that again before one complaint turns into
two! Seriously, who said the following...
1) I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I
have ended up where I intended to be.
a. Douglas Adams b. Woody Allen c. Brooke Shields
2) We are what we repeatedly do.
a. Benjamin Franklin b. Sigmund Freud c. Aristotle
3) Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence
on society.
a. Lily Tomlin b. Mark Twain c. Will Rogers
4) Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new
person you meet reminds you of someone else.
a. Ronald Reagan b. Ogden Nash c. William Safire
5) Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.
a. Albert Einstein b. Billy Graham c. Abraham Lincoln
6) There's only one way to have a happy marriage...and as soon
as I learn what it is I'll get married again.
a. Sophia Loren b. Donald Trump c. Clint Eastwood
7) Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach
you to keep your mouth shut.
a. Benny Hill b. Ernest Hemingway c. George W. Bush
8) Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set
a bad example.
a. La Rouchefoucauld b. George Burns c. Opray Winfrey
And now for one that's sure to fool you...
9) Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools
do.
a. Oscar Wilde b. Homer Simpson c. Dale Carnegie
Answers below, here's the scoring:
9 correct: Perfection!
7-8 correct: Outstanding
5-6 correct: Very Good
2-4 correct: Fairly Fair
0-1 correct: Turn the TV off
Answers:
1) a. Douglas Adams
2) c. Aristotle
3) b. Mark Twain
4) b. Ogden Nash
5) a. Albert Einstein
6) c. Clint Eastwood
7) b. Ernest Hemingway
8) a. La Rouchefoucauld
9) c. Dale Carnegie
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COMPUTER TIPS - Print Files Without Opening Them
If you have a file you need to print you might not have to open
it to print it. Try right-clicking the file and see if there is
a Print option on the pop-up menu. If there is, click it and see
if the file prints. You can print files without opening them
from Windows Explorer or from within many other programs this
way. Not all file types are supported though, so if the Print
option isn't there then you can't print it this way. This is a
handy trick to print files when you no longer have the software
needed to view the file.
If the above method didn't work, you can look for another program
to open the file with. On Windows 98 hold down the Shift key and
right-click the file. In addition to the normal right-click pop-up
menu, a new command will be there...Open With. Windows XP users
don't have to hold down the shift key to use the Open With command,
it's already there on right-click.
The Open With command allows you to select the program you want to
try to open the file with from a list of programs. I'd deselect the
option that asks if you always want to use the program you select
to open the file type you're trying to open. Since you don't know
if the program will open it, there's no reason to create the file
association to always open that type of file with that program.
For a text based file you might try using Notepad, Wordpad, Word,
or another text program. For a graphic file select Paint or another
graphics program if you have one.
If that fails and you no longer have the program to open it with,
your options are to reinstall a program that read the file, or
email it to a friend that can open it and ask him or her to print
it and mail it to you.
Disclaimer: Advice in this column is presented as informational
and is true to the best of my knowledge. Any decisions to follow
this advice is your responsibility. Your computer, your choice.
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Until next week, ponder these words of Heda Bejar: The fragrance
always remains in the hand that gives the rose.
Have an interesting day, Simon
Questions? Comments? Email me at: tutor@gophercentral.com
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Archive Link: Internet Tutor Archives
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END OF THE INTERNET TUTOR
Copyright 2006 by NextEra Media. All rights reserved.
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