Max width of blog
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I think the WordPress blog is excellent. I use it to communicate my travels and there are a lot of pictures in it. I resize my pictures to 1620x 1080 which fits the screen nicely. But I have the following problems with the blog:
1. The entire blog is squeezed into middle of the screen, leaving the left and right sides blank.
2. The blog is then subdivided into 3 columns. So my posts and pictures are tiny.
3. I have tried various themes, but cannot fill the whole screen with any.
4. I’d be willing to pay the $80 for custom design (I’ve used CSS) but according to you blurb the maximum width is 565 px.HOW CAN I USE THE FULL WIDTH OF THE SCREEN?
Peter Bishop
(email visible only to moderators and staff)The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Each theme is designed with different widths, sidebars, and features.
You can filter the themes available on WordPress.com here:
http://theme.wordpress.com/
Try the “photography” selection.
Here is a comparison of theme widths updated until last year:
http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/maximum-image-width/Also keep in mind that there are different screen widths on different devices so while a picture as wide as 1620 may look good on your screen, it may be too large for many others. IMO: the new “Responsive” theme is versatile because it is designed to display well on small and large screens.
And my personal opinion here: a picture that requires scrolling up and down is annoyingly hard to see in one go: a smaller image would actually look nicer. You can make pictures “clickable” to open in larger sizes if someone wants to see more detail.
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Hi 1tess
Thank you for your most informative reply.
I looked at the “photography” selection and I like it.
I didn’t understand the comparison of screen widths.
When I had a website I used 1620 x 1080 as standard and never had a complaint from my visitors. I was using Expression Web 7. I think the pages adjusted themselves to the visitors screen resolution. (I used to test new pages for compatability with the popular browsers.) I entirely agree that scrolling a pic is most undesirable.
All the themes I’ve tried leave the sides of the screen empty. Before I spend $60 to try “photography” can you tell me:
1. Will the sides of the screen be empty?
2. Can I make the pictures “clickable” so the visitor can view it full-screen?
3. If the answer to 2. is yes, how do I do this?Many thanks for your help.
Peter
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When Tess suggested you try the “photography” selection, she didn’t mean the premium theme called Photography, she meant the themes that are supposed to be more suitable for photo-blogging. Visit the theme showcase site, click Find a Theme, click Subjects, click Photography:
http://theme.wordpress.com/1. The sides will be empty if the width of the theme is fixed and if a user has a high resolution screen. If you’re interested in widest possible, visit the theme showcase again, click Find a Theme, click Widths, and check the Flexible Width and the Responsive Layout themes.
2. Yes. 3. See this post of mine:Uploading and inserting images: the three (plus one) link options
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Got it!
I’ve chosen “Widely” which looks wide and simple. It has Flexible Width and Responsive Layout. Are these automatic, because I can’t find anything to control them? Does the blog adjust itself to visitor’s computer?
I’ve also got the click-on-image enlargement working – perfect!
Many many thanks for getting me going.
Peter :)
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But not that Widely is semi-fleible: it has a fixed maximum width, so the sides will be empty on high resolution screens.
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Widely is Widely. Widely has a responsive layout. Responsive means it shrinks to adapt to lower resolution screens or mobile devices, but it doesn’t stretch past a certain reasonable width (that’s why I called it semi-flexible).
In the Theme Showcase site you can click for live demos of all the themes, and drag your browser window to make it narrower or wider so you can see how each theme behaves.
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I love the way you respond so quick to my comments!
OK, so I got it right – thanks. But the modern trend is to have pages TOTALLY flexible to adjust dynamically to the visitors screen width. Most of my friends have wide, high-res screens and/or iPhones or equivalent.
SUGGESTION: make your entire blogging system dynamically flexible (sorry – I don’t know the correct word – I never did websites when I worked in IT). -
The thing is, if you go here, http://gs.statcounter.com/?PHPSESSID=6vk0kaadcq24av7657jd3hrel6#resolution-ww-monthly-201202-201302 , you will find that only 6% of people are using monitors at 1600 px wide and the majority of them are still on 1024px or 1366px wide resolutions, so for the bulk of visitors, if your images were 1620px wide, they would not be able to see them in their entirety without scrolling horizontally. This is one of the reasons for the reactive designs on themes now days so that the themes can respond to the width of the display. Also, if you have any text accompanying your images such as descriptions, text gets incredibly hard to read for people if the lines of text are longer than about 650 to 700px in width. WordPress themes are starting to press this and some are stretching out to near 900px in width for the text, which can be difficult to read. That is why books are as narrow as they are.
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+1 @thesacredpath – some of the themes are getting more difficult to read because of the width –
As to the “lack of complaints” – simple – I go to a site that is annoying or hard to read I just don’t ever come back – simple – no complaint to the webmaster – I just be gone gone gone
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That’s incredible! My screen is set at 1600 px which is the Microsoft recommendation. I must poll my friends and see what resolution they have their computers set to.
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auxass: Well, I get a lot of compliments and many of my friends are followers. Most people say “your pics are terrific” – so I must be doing something right! Perhaps I should emphasize that whilst my blog is entirely public and I welcome any member of the public, it is aimed primarily at my friends (who tend to be scattered around the world).
If I visited a friend and saw their resolution was 1024px, (a) I’d be very surprised (most are computer nerds) and (b) I’d say “Get real! Use today’s technology.”
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I’ve changed the theme from ‘Widely’ to ‘Responsive’ and will now put in pics so that users can click on them to enlarge them. Page ‘About Me’ (menu option) is to this standard. Anyone having any trouble reading it?
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