By mediafrenzy on

Quite a few of my users are still using IE6 at a resolution of 800x600.... horrific I know, but thats what a lot of low tech users still use.

As it turns out, Drupal5 with Garland is not actually usable with a right/left sidebar in IE6 at 800x600. The minimum width setting for the middle content column is ignored, and so the right sidebar content is brought way too far in, and obscures a lot of the middle columns content.

Any way to get around this?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

BrianKlinger’s picture

BrianKlinger commented

This might be blasphemy to you, but with 800x600 I wonder if a fixed width like Minnelli would make more sense? Most of the liquid layouts I've dealt with just don't handle that screen resolution well for the reasons you mentioned. I'm posting to toss out this idea, and also because I'm curious what others have to say about this, as I've run into it and you see the conclusion I've drawn.

mediafrenzy’s picture

mediafrenzy commented

Hear what you're saying, but I guess my thoughts on this are that because it is a very small minority who are using 800x600, and even fewer still who are also using IE6, I don't want to change the whole site around for the vast majority who are very pleased with the garland layout I've given them for their community. Most users commented on how much they loved the new design (after switching from a kubrick fixed width theme).

So what I ended up thinking was that for the small number of 800x600 users, the minimum width thing thing (which works in Firefox etc) would have to do, and although its ugly, with some content hanging off the right side of the screen, its still usable for them, and everybody else gets a much better experience with all their available screen realestate filled with community interaction (at an easily readable font size etc)

vm’s picture

vm commented

Seems to me you could get the screen resolution maybe using javascript and then redirect 800x600 users to a different theme if necessary ?

_____________________________________________________________________
My posts & comments are usually dripping with sarcasm.
If you ask nicely I'll give you a towel : )

mediafrenzy’s picture

mediafrenzy commented

Yeah I suppose I could try something like this. Perhaps I could just redirect them to a page explaining in no uncertain terms just why they should increase their resolution ;)

(And for that matter, stop using IE6.... but thats a whole other rant!)

I just wish I could find a straightforward IE6 CSS hack to enforce the minimum width of the center column, and then move on to more important matters...

xmacinfo’s picture

xmacinfo
he/him
Primary language French
Location Canada
commented

Look at the CSS I did for www.xmacinfo.com. Using a hack for min-width in IE6.

On www.montrealfrancais.info, the same hack supports IE 6 and 7 and the min-width occupies the center of the screen. I am not the inventor of this hack, but I'm using regularly.

I still have a lot of work to in this site, particularly to have it look better on IE6.

/*_*/
http://www.xmacinfo.com

mediafrenzy’s picture

mediafrenzy commented

Thanks for that. I just took a quick look, but the ie6 hack isn't jumping out at me? Which css chunk is it that you've added? Forgive my css blindness :)

xmacinfo’s picture

xmacinfo
he/him
Primary language French
Location Canada
commented 
/****************** MIN-WIDTH FOR IE *****************/

* html #minwidth1 {
	padding-left: 870px;
}
* html #minwidth2 {
	margin-left: -870px;
	position: relative;
}
* html #minwidth1, * html #minwidth2, * html .minwidthinner {
	height: 1px;
}

/****************** MIN-WIDTH FOR GECKO *****************/

#inner {
	min-width: 870px;
}

/****************** END MIN-WIDTH ******************/

I don't know if it will be compatible with Garland. You will need to had the required div tags in your page template.

/*_*/
http://www.xmacinfo.com

mediafrenzy’s picture

mediafrenzy commented

Thanks again, I'll try that out

xmacinfo’s picture

xmacinfo
he/him
Primary language French
Location Canada
commented

I don't know any web designer still doing sites in 800 x 600. Now usability calls for 1024 x 768 minimum.

I'm affraid you will have to modify extensively the theme for a so small resolution.

/*_*/
http://www.xmacinfo.com

mediafrenzy’s picture

mediafrenzy commented

I agree it can be a real mission to get a site working well across the entire spectrum of resolutions, particularly as more people are running higher resolutions now than ever before.

However, the minimum width CSS setting for the middle column of Garland actually works in Firefox etc... so while its not very nice (hanging sidebar content off the right side of screen), its still usable to those using super low resolutions... thats all I'm trying to get to - as I'm not willing to tarnish the experience for 1024x768 and above just for the last of the 800x600 users.

So yeah, I agree that 800x600 is dead or dying, but surely there must be a way to force IE6 to have that same minimum width in the center column of Garland? Just as it does successfully for firefox. Some sort of IE specific CSS hack?

bryansd’s picture

bryansd commented

I think it's important to remember that it's not what the web designer wants, but it's usually what the employer/customer/client wants that determines whether 800 x 600 is the minimum requirement. MediaFrenzy, having said that, I think it's very difficult to do what you want using Garland and have it actually works in all three IE6, IE7, and Firefox.

Perhaps, if 800x600 is truly necessary you should consider a theme that relies more on tables for the layout and less on CSS for the layout. The problem though is while you may improve the usability of the theme at 800x600 you may be introducing accessibility issues (tables are not easy to "read" in browsers used by the visually impaired).

xmacinfo... I do agree that 1024 x 768 is today's minimum for usability, but I'm also amazed at how many sites these days require even more resolution. My laptop has a max resolution of 1024 x 768 and I even found that it was difficult to visit a number of sites at that resolution. I think sites do a disservice to users when they require a widescreen resolution to be usable, but looks like the trend is coming sooner than later. I accept this trend as I need a good excuse to buy myself a new laptop. :-)

-Bryan
CMSReport

mediafrenzy’s picture

mediafrenzy commented

I won't be going backwards and start using tables again just to keep the 800x600 crowd happy... couldn't sleep at night ;)

But yeah I think I'll just have to find someone who knows how to make an IE6 CSS hack to force that min width. Must be possible surely.

And yeah, I certainly wouldn't expect visitors to be using higher than 1024 on any of my sites. Most even work ok in 800, its just this one really, with so many blocks in use, and community interaction going on all over the place on every page. It works so much better for 1024+ now that its a liquid garland theme, compared to my old kubrick based theme, which most users just found to constrictive, hard to read, and less engaging and interactive. The 800x600 IE6 users are the only stumbling block really

andreavr’s picture

andreavr commented

http://drupal.org/node/140846

I've got it working with bluebreeze, drupal 5.7 in IE6