Web Development Confinement to Screen Resolution Restrictions

When you build a web site your goal is to make it easy to read for your target audience. The layout is important and the content's readability from a font and presentation perspective and how the text reads. The target audience may have a specific preference as to browser, screen resolution, or age/reading level. Just as a newspaper must cater to it's target audience so must you in developing your web site.

One tool I have found useful is a wallpaper template. I normally run at a high resolution (1600x1200) and remembering how things look to the common user (1024x768 these days, though it was once 800x600) is sometimes tough. This template helps keep your perspective. Simply re-size your browser to fit within the size you're targetting. If you're running Windows XP or (gasp) Windows 98 you could configure a second display to the appropriate resolution, but that's a different challenge. Windows 2000 doesn't actually have this capability, but it's my OS of choice.

Note: you may want to leave a little space at the bottom of the area for the task bar.