Posted by dorayme on 05/06/06 07:54

In article
<leo-C69178.17511705052006@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net>,
Leonard Blaisdell <leo@greatbasin.com> wrote:

> In article <b_Q6g.2661$Da5.1942@newsfe4-win.ntli.net>,
> "Domestos" <andy.mak@virgin.netspam> wrote:
>
> > > Try playing with this example:
> > > http://benmeadowcroft.com/webdev/csstemplates/3-column.html
> >
> > That is what I am trying to avoid - when the page gets too thin, the red
> > box
> > on the right first goes behind the text and then blends into the yellow box
> > on the left... IMHO that is bad design !!!
>
> It is hardly bad design. There is a certain point in the horizontal
> narrowing of all web pages where the design breaks down. Content either
> coalesces as in the above example, jumps down or disappears.
> Yet it's still a far more forgiving medium than the printed page.
>
> leo

I agree with Leo. But, to be fair to Domestos, table layouts
don't have this particular breakdown. However, there are things
that can be done to miitigate it in css driven col designs.

There are other ways to 2 and more cols that float either one or
all left and provide wrappers and careful margins to avoid this
overlap. Not in the present design though; which uses trickier
absolute positioning to gain strategic advantages to do with
where one can position the content in the html (first! so that
the most important part of the doc is available to those people
and things that do not or cannot rely on the usual visual browser
aids...)

There are also devices such as min-width to help out in other
designs..

The point is that one needs to weigh up the pros and cons, one
can, over time become impressed enough with the advantages oif
separating style from content that a few odd things happening
with unrealistically narrowed windows is a small price to pay.

--
dorayme

[Back to original message]