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Changing Your Screen Resolution: Why Would you Want to?

The History in Brief

Screen resolution refers to just how many pixels are crammed onto your screen all at once. Put simply, a pixel is a little coloured dot of light, many of which go together to make up what you see on your computer monitor. Whether you are aware of it or not, Windows, in most cases, will allow you to change your screen resolution, and because of changing Internet standards, it is something you may want to consider doing.

Back in the old days (like, three years ago) it was standard to have your screen resolution set to 640x480. What this meant was that your screen was displaying 640 pixels in width and 480 in height. As technology and colour representation improved, the standard for display became 800x600. This meant basically that more could be fit on your screen and still look good. Monitor size was restricted to 14 inches, and some lucky people had the really expensive 15 inch monitors. If you looked at your screen in 800x600, you would notice that things would appear smaller on your screen (and hence more was able to fit on) than if you looked at the same scene on the same monitor at 640x480.

Why is Screen Resolution Important?

Well, when it comes to the Internet, think about it from a web designer's point of view. They want their pages to look good. Any web designer will tell you that the biggest pain in the neck when it comes to designing is producing a page that will look good no matter what the monitor size or screen resolution is of the computer user visiting the site. Designers tend to design for 800x600 because they know that this is the current standard (or was until recently, or maybe still is...). They know that computer monitors are usually shipped already preset to this resolution, and so, to design for that resolution makes the most sense.

If you're not sure you're following me as to how resolution will affect how you see things on the Internet, go online and visit a few sites at varying resolutions. You'll soon see what I mean.

Current Resolution Trends

As technology develops, we can expect that things like resolution standards will continue to change, and indeed that is the case. Technology improvements have meant that larger sized monitors are becoming cheaper, and it is quite common now for standard home computers to have 17 inch monitors. 17 inch monitors don't tend to look all that good in 800x600. The reason for this is that, because the screen is bigger, then each of the individual 800 pixels of width, or 600 pixels of height will be bigger in and of themselves. This leads to graphics looking chunkier and colours looking a tad garish. People with larger monitors (and even some with 15 inch monitors) are now finding that higher resolutions make their screen displays look better. If you have a 17 inch monitor, 1024x768 is now pretty standard.

Why Should You Care?

You should care, at least enough to do some quick comparisons yourself, because web designers (professional and amateur) are starting to design more for 1024x768 these days. After all, it's a much easier resolution to design for, and more and more people have larger monitors. If your monitor is still set to 800x600, you may come to a page and find that you're able to see less of it all at once than the designer intended you to. You're going to have to do a lot more scrolling of sidebars and bottom-bars, and, to put it bluntly, you're going to be aesthetically disadvantaged. This would be a shame as aesthetics make up a big part of a pleasing Internet experience.

It's something you may not have thought that much about, and perhaps it's something you won't notice until you try. That's why I encourage you to have a play with your resolution settings. It's easy to do and you may be amazed at the difference.

Changing Your Resolution Under Windows

1. Simply go to your desktop and right-click on some free space. A grey menu box will pop up.
2. Left-click on Properties near the bottom of the menu. A large Display Properties box will pop up.
3. Select the Settings tab in the Display Properties box.
4. Use the little slide bar near the lower left of the Display Properties box to adjust desired screen resolution and then click Okay.

After you've done this, Windows will ask you to confirm that changing your resolution is indeed what you want to do. After you've clicked Okay again, your monitor will flick off for a few seconds and then pop back to life again with the new resolution. Windows will usually ask you to confirm the change one last time, and then it will leave you to it.

Changing Your Resolution with a Macintosh

For all Macintosh operating systems below OS X, resolution settings are found under the Apple Menu. Select Control Panels, and then Monitors and Sound. Or, you can use the Control Strip at the bottom of the screen, and click on the Screen resolution icon. You can read more detailed instructions at www.serct.vic.edu.au/notebook/mac/wshop2/wshop2f.htm.

For Macintosh OS X, resolution settings are found by clicking the Apple Menu, and then selecting System Preferences and then Displays. Or you can click on the Apple in the Dock at the bottom, and select Displays.

Anyway, have a play with your resolution if you're inclined, and especially if you're finding you often have to use the horizontal scroll bar when visiting sites. If you have an older monitor type, you may find that 800x600 is as high as you're allowed to go. But if you do manage to change your resolution from 800x600 to 1024x768, I would be surprised if you wanted to go back, especially if you're enjoying a 17 inch monitor.

Web Logs and Journals

by John Anderson

Have You Ever Googled?

Have you ever googled your name? "Googling yourself" was a reasonably common Internet fad a few months ago, and it can be quite an interesting activity, depending on who else in the world has your name.

To google your name, head on over to the Google search engine and enter your name. Enclose your name in quote marks so that Google will search on your whole name as a phrase rather than on your first name and last name separately. Google will return you with a list of all the instances of that name that it find on the Internet. You can click those separate links to get the full story on each one. It's a great way to get an overview of your own online activity, but the amusing aspect comes in when it reports about things other people with your name have been doing online. I found that I came sixth in some American tractor pulling contest (under the category of "Super Farm Tractors."). To my delight I am also a Dutch singing performer with a string of released CDs under my belt. I also saw pictures of a beautiful prize-winning horse I apparently own in Holland. I am a children's doctor in Poland, Ohio, and I seem to have done a whole lot of things in Germany that I am unable to read about, unfortunately.

Googling is a harmless diversion, and who knows what it might end up leading to? You might be more famous than you think!

The Kapiti Puffers

The Kapiti Puffers are running the second annual around the Kapiti Coast family - fun mountain bike ride event. You can read about the Kapiti Puffers at www.kapiti-rotary.org.nz. The Kapitit Puffers are New Zealand's fastest growing email mountain bike group. They now send out a free email monthly newsletter to over 120 people and membership is also free. Most people are older than 20 with the oldest being just under 70. The idea is to ride for enjoyment and on the 9th and 10th of March 2002 they will be running Kapiti's Mountain Bike Adventure. All profits are given back to the organisations helping us put this event on.

Interesting Sites (Click the picture links to access the sites)

Please note: Actrix supplies links to these sites for your interest and possible use. We cannot endorse or take any responsibility for their contents. Got a site you think would be neat to share with other readers? Let me know and receive a free Norrie the Nerd chocolate bar courtesy of Actrix!

Congratulations to last month chocolate bar winners who correctly identified Bob Dylan as the singer who signed with Columbia records in 1961. They were: Malcolm Parker, Stuart Payne, Michiel Verkade, Gerard Jackson, Al Barkla, Howard Weir and Paul Wyatt.

New Zealand Ghosts www.nzghosts.co.nz/ - Ghosties and ghoulies and long legged beasties? Okay, so I'm a little late for Halloween, but this is still a pretty good site that presents a nice little collection of ghost stories from New Zealand and from other places around the world. Lots of pictures and interesting tidbits to keep you occupied for a while. A free Actrix chocolate bar sent out to anyone who writes to me at editor@actrix.co.nz with the New Zealand location of George Allwright's headstone (not too hard to find...). Please confirm your postal address when you do.

Quit Smoking www.quit.org.nz/ "The Quit Group is an effective leader and provider of smoking cessation services in New Zealand. Our mission is to reduce smoking prevalence and to achieve equitable outcomes for Maori by creating supportive quitting environments." There's a host of information here about smoking and how to give it up. It may be just the thing you need to get to the point where you're ready to take the plunge. If so, try their help-line and get your own quit kit.

The Blue Flame Cafe www.blueflamecafe.com/ - Welcome to the new home of The Blue Flame Cafe, an interactive biographical encyclopedia of the great blues singers and singers of the blues, from Charley Patton to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Lots of biographical information here, each biography coming with its own picture(s).

Microsoft Support http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/c.asp?fr=0&SD=GN&LN=EN-NZ - This is a really useful site for finding help with those annoying Windows-based problems. It is very functional, and allows you to create all sorts of customised searches for help with almost any version of any Microsoft product. I particularly recommend the pilot search wizard. There's a link for that on the left of the page.

ABE Used, Rare, Out-of-Print Books www.abebooks.com - ABE claims to be the world's largest network of independent booksellers. It has a search function via which you can find "millions of used books, secondhand, rare, out-of-print and other hard-to-find books. These will probably be overseas books, but that's probably par for the course New Zealanders seeking these sorts of volumes. The range is certainly extensive, and I was able to locate a number of rare books that interested me. Be prepared to have to use your credit card.

Wayback Web Archive http://web.archive.org/ - The Wayback machine is really something else! I finally got to see Actrix pages of long ago. "The Internet Archive Wayback Machine puts the history of the World Wide Web at your fingertips. The Archive contains over 100 terabytes and 10 billion web pages archived from 1996 to the present. To start using the Wayback Machine to surf the web as it was, just type a URL (web site address) into the box, click the Take Me Back button, and start exploring the past."

MSN Games Zone http://zone.msn.com/blog.asp?TAd=1 - This page contains a list of all the games one could play at the MSN Gaming Zone. To the left of the page is a small menu that helps you sort the available games by sub-categories. A few of the more complicated games require you to become a member or to download gaming software, but a lot of the games are freely available for you to play online. One simple little game that was quick, easy to learn and good fun for more than few minutes was Alchemy, available directly at http://zone.msn.com/alchemy/default.asp. Have a look and try a few from the index.

World Time Server www.worldtimeserver.com/?locationid=NZ - If your PC is anything like mine, you'll have found that your little right-hand corner clock can occasionally appear to live in a faster or slower space time continuum than you do. A page like that at World Time Server may be just what you need to visit. You can choose any location in the world and have the correct and accurate time and date at that location displayed for you. There's also a nifty little free program you can download there that will ping World Time Server on a regular basis and automatically update your computer's clock to the true and correct time wherever you are. Neato!

The Invisible Library www.invisiblelibrary.com/ - The Invisible Library is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library's catalogue you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound. I thought this was an interesting concept and immediately looked up The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Yeah, interesting, but I confess I'm left wondering about just what use it all is...

Punk As (NZ) www.punkas.com/ - New Zealand Punk, Ska and Hardcore Music. I felt it only fair to include this site this month, as I have been featuring Rock and Blues sites lately that would cater more for those of us who haven't heard of "59 Times the Pain," "Lagwagon," or "Me First and the Gimme Gimmes." It's a New Zealand site, which mainly features local music. You can follow and find out about NZ bands like Blake, Brubeck and Foamy Ed. Think I might include a small language warning, though.

Liquid! www.liquid.co.nz - Last month we mentioned the brand spanking new www.sorted.org.nz. A similar type of site (this time without a furry conscience) with lots of neat investment tools and opportunities is www.liquid.co.nz. In fact Liquid doesn’t just contain tools to help you make decisions, it also offers "New Zealand's first fully self contained, independent online financial services broker"

Bays Flowers www.baysflowers.co.nz/ - You can send flowers online to anyone within New Zealand using services such as Bays Flowers in Auckland. Simply go the site, search for the flowers you want to send, proceed to checkout and Bob's your uncle. You write a message to go with the flowers, and you can pay with your credit card online. Bays is just one example of a New Zealand online flower shop. It's based in Auckland, so it would be a good one to choose if you were sending flowers to someone in that area. Freight costs with Bays are more expensive to addresses outside Auckland, so it would be wise to find an online flower shop in or near the city you want to send to. Let your keyboard do the walking and search for online flower shops at SearchNZ. Enter something like "send flowers" into the search field and choose from the many options it returns.

Bringing It All Back Home

Thanks for your attention if you have read this far. I hope there was something here for you this month.

As always, your feedback is appreciated. I enjoy suggestions for content and look forward to comments in general. In particular, I'd love to hear from you if you have found something online that's neat enough to share with others. Any suggestions for Interesting Sites receive a free Norrie the Nerd Actrix chocolate bar. Old Norrie's been a bit quiet lately, but if you'd like to find out more about him, including his life story, you can find it at www.actrix.co.nz/users/norrie.

Take care through December. I hope you have a good build-up to Christmas. Don't forget to check out www.xmas.co.nz.

Rob Zorn
editor@actrix.co.nz
http://editor.actrix.co.nz