Making team banners - some things to remember

[robcoop]

THINK WINDOW. THINK WINDOW. THINK WINDOW.

Don't focus on whether your banner should be exactly 800 pixels wide.

I've said a couple times.... don't make banners exactly 800 pixels wide. The WINDOW the banner is SHOWING through is 800 pixels wide --- so, if for some unknown (or known reason) your page gets stretched wider, then the empty space to the right of your banner (within the window) will be revealed... showing that you failed to anticipate that change in width of the window.

The reasons this problem arises is from many reasons, one being custom HTML in the sidebar is wider than 300 pixels. It's OK to make it any width you want but understand how the banner space works first.

Other times, sometimes, a main article picture is manually posted at some gi-normous pixel width -- resulting in a BANNER WINDOW area that is way wider than 800 pixels.

If you follow standard guidelines and use default widths, the banner width will be maybe 800, or 801, or maybe 802 pixels wide... and even if you create a banner 1000 pixels wide, only 800 or 801 or 802 pixels of the width will display.

The standard practice for designing the banner? Keep all IMPORTANT content WITHIN an 800 pixels visually area. Let patterns and non-text design flow off the right side.

Hope this helps. If it's still unclear, I will draw pictures and create a tutorial (which is way overdue obviously).

Thanks.