I'm struggling with all the modifications I'm making to this wonderful theme, to make it do all the things our site (community newspaper) requires. In addition, I'm having trouble figuring out the best size for the page to be, to make it look the best it can on various monitor screens and in various browsers.

Flynn, is there a "best practice" you believe in for Atahualpa, that is the most flexible? Right now I have my width set at 87%, right sidebar at 255px and left sidebar at 170px.

http://larchmontgazette.com/wp27/

In a fluid layout with 3 columns I'd set a max width of i.e. 1500 px or less so the text lines won't get too long on 1920px monitors.

For static layouts I'd recommend 1000 pixels width or 780 if you have only one column (no sidebars)

Hi Paulae,

May I ask why you chose 255px width for the right sidebar?
Google AdWords?

I've been googling it all morning ("best size"/"optimal size"/"suggested size" wordpress sidebar) and there's no consistency that I've found, which I guess makes sense because blogs are so personal and customized. I use graphics in my sidebar and I don't want to keep changing them if I adjust the sidebar width.

Any tips would be appreciated :-)
http://www.aimitmedia.com

Cheers,
Chase.

Personally, I prefer static width over flexible width. I'm picky with this I suppose. That way it alway looks the way I created it to look. The text sits where I want it to, etc.

I've been sticking with 1000px for width, and between 200px or 300px for sidebars, depending on the content.

I make sure my subscribe "call to action" is always one of the first things in the sidebar, so it's on every page, and "above the fold" to encourage people to actually subscribe...if they see it, maybe they'll do it.

I've been playing with this theme for a number of months, and I'm always surprised with what else I can do.

It may take you some time to get it exactly where you want it, but it's worth playing around, and worth exploring here too. I've learned so much since finding this place. It was a no-brainer to donate.

Good luck with your site!

Velma

I can't remember why I had the sidebars set to 255 back then. Now, I have the page width set to fixed, 990px, left sidebar is 200px, inner right is 150px, far right is 180px.

http://larchmontgazette.com