The major caveat of resolution based design is in detecting the resolution and redirecting/conditionally loading the appropriate files. Current res detection techniques require javascript. If javascript isn't enabled, you won't be able to get this functionality.
There are many, many ways to tackle multiple layouts for different resolutions. The choice is up to you. Educate yourself about the options and make an informed choice. Here's a starter list of options: -
1. Multiple versions of site. Detect resolution and redirect to appropriate URL. Multiple versions are typically stored in subdirectories mydomain.com/large, mydomain.com/medium, or mydomain.com/small for example. This way sucks because it requires the most work to roll-out and maintain updates.
2. Conditional CSS. Design separate style sheets for each desired resolution. Detect resolution and load appropriate stylesheet.
3. Ignore resolution and use a liquid design. Liquid design is the most popular choice amongst standards zealots. If you design the layouts using percentages instead of pixels, the layout will adjust to the resolution. This method has it's drawbacks though. On very large monitors, the layout can become so wide that whitespace becomes an issue and text line length can becom unreadable.
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by: jason1178Posted on 2009-10-13 at 22:05:29ID: 25567390
Hi Tomcat_104,
Why not create just one page that uses percentages instead of fixed widths so things always look good no matter what the resolution is?