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Please explain to me in words of one syllabe what responsive means!
Balikiwi
Posts: 69Members
I'm newly back working with RW, it's been several years since I made my last site with it and things have changed.
I'm using a very nice theme that I like a lot that describes itself as "responsive."
It also has a function whereby I can see approximately what my site will look like on iPad, iPhone and Blackberry etc etc.
Also I see that I often have the option on most pages to choose how my text or image "fills" its container. I get the choice of "fill" "flexible" "fixed" and "float."
I wonder if somehow these options are tied up in this "responsive" business?
The reason why I specifically ask is that when I test some of my pages with the built-in "Mobile Simulator" they look absolute rubbish with half the page cut off vertically.
If I want to make my site as accessible as possible to as many people as I can, what rule of thumb should I use with "fill" "flexible" "fixed" or "float." to ensure the best result?
Best to you all, and thanks in anticipation of some common sense.
BTW, if it's a question of just pointing me at another post, or a site where these things are explained, by all means just give me the url(s).
Balikiwi (that means a New Zealander who lives in Bali in case you wondered.)
I'm using a very nice theme that I like a lot that describes itself as "responsive."
It also has a function whereby I can see approximately what my site will look like on iPad, iPhone and Blackberry etc etc.
Also I see that I often have the option on most pages to choose how my text or image "fills" its container. I get the choice of "fill" "flexible" "fixed" and "float."
I wonder if somehow these options are tied up in this "responsive" business?
The reason why I specifically ask is that when I test some of my pages with the built-in "Mobile Simulator" they look absolute rubbish with half the page cut off vertically.
If I want to make my site as accessible as possible to as many people as I can, what rule of thumb should I use with "fill" "flexible" "fixed" or "float." to ensure the best result?
Best to you all, and thanks in anticipation of some common sense.
BTW, if it's a question of just pointing me at another post, or a site where these things are explained, by all means just give me the url(s).
Balikiwi (that means a New Zealander who lives in Bali in case you wondered.)
Comments
Not easy to answer simply. Whilst you may have a Theme that's Responsive its not enough to get your desired results. You also needs Stacks & some Responsive Stacks elements. Suggest you look at some of Joe Workman's videos on his Responsive Columns, Fluid Images & Cycler Stacks to get the idea.
http://joeworkman.net/tutorials/
Ken
i have used simulator too.. and then when i make the site live, i have discovered that Firefox, Opera, and Safari still have minor differences when rendering the site... things such as a left border on a footer appears in Firefox and Opera on Mac, but Safari looks perfect.. then on PC again using Firefox the render shows a left border...
by doing this i have been able to look through the theme css files and make minor modifications that fix the issue so all browsers present perfectly.. REGARDLESS of what the simulator displays.
a driving simulator does not make you a good driver... and a flight simulator doesnt make you a pilot... remember its a simulator.. not a live site!
So . . . do many of your clients/users really need to see and navigate the website via iPhone? If yes, then responsive is for you. If no, then don't go there. Waste of your time.
Remember, a non-responsive website will show up on a smart phone, it's just that people may need to scroll/enlarge a bit. And devices like the iPhone have a very nice automatic "reader" feature that allows a person to read the text in a suitable size. So there is some degree of responsiveness already built into several smart phones.
On the other hand, many of my clients need to use my websites via an iPad. The good news is they'll typically use in landscape mode. So responsive is not needed.
I'm not saying responsive is a bad thing. But it's like an 18-wheeler. Are there folks out there that need an 18-wheel truck for their work? Yup. But it's a small minority of all people. The big question is really whether you need a web 18-wheeler or not. If the answer is "no" then don't worry about responsive.