I hope I am allowed to say this, but I was wondering would do people think about widening the forum on the screen?

 I only have a 17" monitor yet the forum only takes two thirds of the monitor up. I imagine the average width of monitor on this forum is a tad wider than that. What are the chances?
 

No thank you. Too wide columns become hard to read, and what's most important, then it would be harder to use with my Nokia E90 from the pub

-mika 

I see what you're saying and I agree but at the same time, my browser window never fills up the screen completely, at the moment I have Twitterrific, MSN, Mail and iTunes on the screen at the same time as Safari (with BeoWorld in it). Making the forum wider would make this impossible...

Toby, I think the forum is wide enough. I think that the proportions are very good the way they are, and don't forget that it will be less comfortable to read when the lines become longer.

The width is determined not by the screen size but by the resolution.  I use 800x600 and the forum fits the width of my screen perfectly. Any wider and it would hence be unreadable.

What I would like though is if the posts were less 'tall'  I'm sure the vertical proportions of the posts could be compacted a bit. Some of the long conversations with short replies can be annoying to have to scroll through when the posts all take up a few inches each

I'm at 1680x1050 on a 20" widescreen and the forum is just taking up 1/3 of the screen.. the middle part. A serious waste of space. It would be nice if the layout would scale according to your resolution.

Karel Uyttendaele:

I'm at 1680x1050 on a 20" widescreen and the forum is just taking up 1/3 of the screen.. the middle part. A serious waste of space. It would be nice if the layout would scale according to you resolution.

Agree 100% with Karel. 

I have asked for this before. (Beoworld Improvements Topic). I have a 24" iMac and have lots of blue showing. My iPod Touch can autosize its screen, so I would vote YES.

 

 

IMHO, it's not the forum design that is a waste of space, the real waste of space is running a web browser in fullscreen mode on a high-resolution monitor.

Regarding the column width: I agree that it's nice when it adapts to the browser window width, but on the other hand it would be much more difficult to read the forum in fullscreen mode. The current fixed width is the best solution when it comes to readabity. As I see it, the real plus of making the column width non.fixed is that it would improve the layout and readability for those people that view the forum in a browser window that's actually more narrow than the current fixed width.

henrik:

IMHO, it's not the forum design that is a waste of space, the real waste of space is running a web browser in fullscreen mode on a high-resolution monitor.

My thoughts exactly. At work, where I have a 16:10 monitor, I have room for two web browsers side by side (or one browser window, and the other half of the screen for doing what ever I do that needs that browser window in the first place).

As I see it, the real plus of making the column width non.fixed is that it would improve the layout and readability for those people that view the forum in a browser window that's actually more narrow than the current fixed width.

Agreed again. For example on the Nokia E90 that I already mentioned (800px wide), I have to scale the text to 75% to get completely rid of the horizontal scroll bar, and it becomes too small for my eyes. Completely useable though, at least under 3G coverage...
 

What is wrong using the full screen mode? In my humble opinion I find it a waste of space having File Edit View Bookmarks Tools Help etc. up top and the Taskbar down below permanently in view since I hardly use those.In full screen I get more text to read and bigger pictures to look at.

 I understand if by widening the page it will mean you can not surf the site easily whilst down the pub on your "handy". I would be happy to accept that as a good reason to leave things as they are. I would have thought though that this forum software is top of the range and could cope with the differing monitors.

 
I agree though that I do need a second monitor in order to monitor my e-mails and such.

 

I just thought I would ask, show some commitment.
 

henrik:

IMHO, it's not the forum design that is a waste of space, the real waste of space is running a web browser in fullscreen mode on a high-resolution monitor.

That is exactly my point. The advantage of having a wide screen is not to have larger windows on it, but to have more windows on it. Therefor, the width of Beoworld is absolutely right IMO. 

Toby:

What is wrong using the full screen mode?

Nothing, if that's the way you like it! Completely a personal matter. Personally I find too wide lines hard to read (and so do most people - the guys in print business realized this hundreds of years ago) and prefer to use the screen width not just for the single task at hand.

Anyway, having a scaling forum would resolve the problem for all of us. However, implementing it properly so that the layout doesn't break in any browser is not an easy task, and I think the effort is better used on something else. 

Widescreen results in not having to scroll as much. Simple as that for me.

Apple's forum has a fixed width as well.

Digital Spy's forum has auto width. 

I agree with the others RE larger monitors being for more information, not for larger windows.

I don't know about you, but I find switching between different windows/programs to be more time consuming and fidgety than just scrolling up and down.

tournedos:

Toby:

What is wrong using the full screen mode?

Anyway, having a scaling forum would resolve the problem for all of us. However, implementing it properly so that the layout doesn't break in any browser is not an easy task, and I think the effort is better used on something else. 

 Well since you put it like that even I have to agree.   Forget I ever mentioned it. I really should stop nagging.
 

Agree 150 % with Santiago and Karel.

Besides anything is difficult or impossible to read on a Nokia ( even my Communicator ) after an hour at the pub.

I visit a couple of forums every day. The beoworld is the only one with fixed size. All other you are able to adjust just by resizing the window.

Karsten 

kawo:

I visit a couple of forums every day. The beoworld is the only one with fixed size. All other you are able to adjust just by resizing the window.

Karsten 

I agree, I think either automatic or a user-configurable option somewhere in our setting is the way to go.

Cheers,
Frank