[WikiEN-l] MediaWiki formatting for wide browsers

[Monahon, Peter B.]

> > > ...To set the maximum width 
> > > for the content, put html 
{ max-width:1280px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto }
> > > in your monobook.css (adapt 
> > > "1280px" to the width you like
> > to keep it working normally on 
> > smaller screens)...

> ...But aren't there inferior popular 
> browsers that fail to support the
> 'max-width' attribute? ... It would 
> be better to use a relative 
> measurement such as em instead 
> of px, to allow for it to rescale if 
> the font size is adjusted by user 
> preference.  Otherwise, you can 
> have a situation where somebody 
> sets their normal text to a large 
> size (due to poor vision or an 
> extremely high resolution monitor 
> where pixels are very small) and 
> still ends up with it crammed into 
> a fixed-pixel-width canvas...

I just adjust my browser window to ~40 characters across for easy
reading, or I print it out and read off line.  I've also browsed through
Adobe Acrobat (writer) and read on screen or on paper.  There are
options, and maybe we need a page to remind people what are their
viewing adjustment options.  At Wikipedia, [[help:____]] there are only
2 articles with the word "display" or "font", 1 with "view" or "size",
and NONE with the words "adjust", "screen", "resolution", or "window".
What name should we give an article that tells people how to adjust
their display screen resolution and font and window size for optimum
reading?

I think % is relative regardless; em is un referenced to screen physical
dimensions but should correspond to exact measurements on print output
devices; and px depend on device-controlled physical dimensions that
vary from device to device.  Why bother?  Everyone's display and system
rendering is different!

Regardless, 508-compliance requires that information on screen not be
dependant on color (hence my preference for traditional underlines
versus red or blue for links), be responsive to user adjustments for
contrast and size, and present themselves to screen readers with
equivalent information for non-sighted users.  Have a look at
http://www.section508.gov/ and report back in a few days.  Nice "Site
Layout Controls" in the upper right corner, eh?  ;-)