I read in some recent posts that there are Web designers on board. I have done some amateur designing and have a question. I am sorry if this inappropriate for this forum, but since this thread was current I thought I would take a chance..

Dear Drow,

If you feel uneasy about posting such a notice then feel free to PM (private message) anyone with the query.

Question: When you design a page (with 100% table width) for a PC console, on a lap top it comes out all bunched up in the left hand top corner corner. This happens just for the home page. The only way I have found to get over this is to design it off center for the PC screen - that brings it more to the center for the Lap top screen. Is there a way to have it in the center for both the lap top and PC?
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Thanks in advance to Helen of troy or Rubrick or any one else who might answer this question.
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This is pretty confusing. Why does it only happent for the home page? All web pages should behave the same way if they are coded the same way. A few quick tips.

1. Always use tables with plenty of rows and cells to contain your info - especially if you want to align stuff.
2. Only ever use one nested table for each page. More will result in confusion and definite loading time overhead and probable application crash.
3. Check you design on both IE and Netscape. Microsloth like to be different so the two browsers will often display stuff quite differently. It is often irritating but you can easily find an acceptable common ground between the two.
4. Decide on a basic screen size design for your web pages and stick with it. 640 x 480, 800 x 600. Whatever. If you deceide that you can spare the resources to build more than one size (and therefore offer your readers a selection of sizes) then go for it. I never provide that luxury. Better to tell your readers to resize their screens to optimise viewing than to go to all that unneccesary trouble.

Back to your problem. Don't set the table size to 100% - set it to 99%. It works better - believe me!
If you want to centre your work on the page then don't select center and expect the text to be centred on the page. Build a table with at least two rows and three cells wide (use five or seven if that makes the tsk easier). Place all of your stuff in the middle (2nd/3rd/4th) cell. The outer cells need to be the same width but this width can be any figure. The purpose is just to allow centring of text and images. For that cell you can either align it left/right or center. The text will appear in the centre of the page (actually the centre of that cell but it will give the appearance of being centre of the page).

Any more info required then PM me and I'll blabber on ad nauseum.

The only word twist I could give to this post is three different words for the thing you are looking at - console, monitor, screen - any others?
I just checked - MW doesn't give the definition of console as a monitor or screen??? It is the thing that the radio or television sits on? Okay!

In the days when computers took up a medium sized room and required the powerage of a small town to add six numbers together, someone had the bright idea to link a few terminals onto the mainframe to allow many users to access this abundance of informatic power. These terminals consisted of a monitor and a keyboard (the mouse didn't exist just yet) and were known collectively as a console. The montor has been explained - it's the big TV-like thingy that takes up all of your desk space, ruins your eyesight and is bedecked with post-its and various holiday snaps, pet pictures and out-of-focus baby photos of your now seven-year-old.

The screen is just the glass bit at the front which projects the image from your computer and, despite its incredible definition and superior projection qualities is used for little more than emailing, word processing, spreadsheets and the occasioanl web-surfing. The most striking images that you will ever see on a screen these days are the background images (commonly called wallpaper for some reason - even though they don't resemble any wallpaper that I can think of) of such luminaries as George Clooney and Brad Pitt (popular on our secretaries' machines), various sportstars (for the harder types amongst us) and the occasional unidentified skimpily dressed blonde in a position that you never see a wife or girlfriend - well, not in public anyway.