Advice on page widths etc

Hi,

Another question and looking for advice!

I am redesigning my site and want to have three columns on the site, the main content in the middle one, then two smaller ones (one on left, one on right) for ads, news etc. (Similar to http://www.play.com)

I have three questions!

1. Can anyone suggest recommended widths for the three columns?
2. Am I best setting the column widths in % or pixels?
finally
3. What is the best width for the overall page?

Thanks again in advance!

Ben

I will address your questions in the order that makes most sense:
2. Use pixels or %
3. Total width: 800px :: This gives you enough room, and will not be too big for any screen resolutions
1. 500px for the middle, 200px each for the two outer columns

Hope that helps

I still design for a resolution of 800 so I would not go any wider than 790px wide.

Many thanks for your advice. Sorry to be picky, but if I should aim for a total width of 790 / 800 px. Should I reduce the side columns to 150px each (main at 500px)?

Thanks again!

There's nothing wrong with using % for column widths.

The three main CSS units are px, %, and em. Each of these can be used to define a column width, and your layout can even use a mixture of all three units. You can also leave some widths unspecified, so that they expand to fill the available space.

Setting a column width in px creates a fixed-width column: it will always be the same number of pixels wide.

Setting a column width in % creates a fluid column. The column will occupy a percent of the container's width. This typically means the column gets wider when the browser window is larger.

Setting a column width in em creates a column that scales with the text size.

sing2trees, that sounds like a good set of column widths to start out with. I think it will depend on what's in there and if it looks good. Start with that and make small adjustments if you need the smaller column to be a bit wider.

You can get exmamples of 3 fluid columns here

A piece of advice: When you are making the columns for ads, set their width according to standard banner wdiths.