Re: Multi column layout question.

>kitblake/lilley said:
>
>> This discussion began with the observation that many companies, with fast
>> links and nice monitors, are making very wide pages. Check out
>> http://www.alias.com/. It's at least 700 pixels.
>
>Heh. Never even occured to me that page was a problem. Then again on my 
>1280x1024 screen my browser comes up 780 wide by 892 high.
>
>You see that as a problem because your lower resolution screen uses less
>pixels to make the same point size of text.


Wrong assumption: I work on an Indy - 1280x1024. And I still find 800 pixel
line lengths hard to read. Two columns would help, and if the user only has
640, it would only be one column.


>Of course, I see the converse problem with image horizontal rules that are 500 
>or whatever pixels across, and tiny (from my perspective) inline images.
>
>The problem is not with the text, which is nice and independent of platform
>and 
>browser. It is the images. All existing browsers that I know of use a 1:1 
>mapping between image pixels and device pixels. So the image looks small on a 
>high resolution screen and large on a low resolution screen.
>
>This problem is particularly acute with the partially sighted, who may be 
>reading text set to like an inch or so high. The images do not scale with 
>the text so they cannot see them.
>
>This problem is being adressed in the following areas:
>
>- HTML 3.0 FIG which take width and height in real world units
>- stylesheets, which can magnify everything with a lens mapping


>Of course, if you happen to like multi-column text for wide screens then 
>fair enough. Use a stylesheet which triggers multiple column layout for <P>
>whien the browser window is wider than some value you specify.

If this is an option then I have yet to hear of it. Thanks for pointing its
existence. 


>> Having some control mechanism to organize text in columns makes for better
>> communication. A caption can be under a picture. Or on a side.
>
>Ah. See the FIG element too for that. A caption is best in a <CAPTION> element.

The <CAPTION> element sounds hard to control. 


>>Or linked footnotes can be on a wide margin. 
>
>Or you could use the foonote feature in HTML 3.0. 

Pop-up footnotes are one solution, but rather clicky.


>I assume people on this list, which is a technical discussion forum, have at 
>least skimmed the archives and familiarised themselves with existing HTML 
>features and proposals before proposing new HTML features. Could you then 
>explain how your proposed overloaded use of columns is an improvement on 
>these HTML 3.0 proposals?

I am not testing or writing Arena/HTML3, but a column element seems simple
to implement, and would provide many options in formatting a page. Options
that I don't see available in:
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/html3/Contents.html

kitblake

Received on Monday, 26 June 1995 12:26:10 UTC