Help: fixed width default theme

[ryuuchida]

Hello everyone!

I need help! How can I modify the default theme to have a fixed centered width of 850px? I've done this for the header and the main content, but I can't figure out what to do with the "menu section" and the "powered by" section at the bottom.

Can anyone help? Thanks. 

Oh, and how can I put a background image on the page? Thanks again. 

[Burpee]

I don't know how suitable this is, but you could try putting the whole forum in a table with a fixed with of 850px in index.template.php...
However, I am wondering why you would want to do this... a width of 850 isn't too great on all resolutions, is it?
My personal opinion is that a width of 780px is the max fixed width you can use on a site. It fits on pretty much all 800x600 browsers. It is smarter to make it somewhere around 775 though, because some people have their scrollbars a bit larger or some browsers just mess it up somehow...

[ryuuchida]

Hello Burpee! Thanks for the reply!

I don't know how suitable this is, but you could try putting the whole forum in a table with a fixed with of 850px in index.template.php...

Yes, I tried doing this but I can't seem to get the syntax right and the page won't load at all. Can you show me how to do this? I'm a newbie in PHP. 

However, I am wondering why you would want to do this... a width of 850 isn't too great on all resolutions, is it?

You're right. Actually, I was expecting that the normal resolution that people use is 1024x768. The reason I want the width at 850 is that I want to add a background image at the sides--just to make the forum a little different than the default theme.

My personal opinion is that a width of 780px is the max fixed width you can use on a site. It fits on pretty much all 800x600 browsers.

You have a valid point. Can you show me how to make a fixed 780px width forum? Thanks.

[Burpee]

Hmm... annoying... this is gonna require a lot of modifications...  I did most of them in my own index.template.php... you can download it here and see what I changed...

[ryuuchida]

Hi, Burpee!

Thanks for the link! That was fast. I'll check it out. 

BTW, nice avatar!