Web pages appear Cramped

[BigTimeNovice]

When I surf different web pages, at least half of them appear cramped. That is, they are all pushed to one side or in the middle. I have a 15" screen with updated drivers, but it has always been like this. I have the font set to medium (does not change even if font sizes are changed) and with the encoding I have it on Auto-Select. This does not change with or without auto-select. www.msn.com has the entire web page on the left and there is about 4 inches or just blue background to the right. www.cnet.com has everything cramped in the middle with about 3 inches on each side of just gray background - and all the images have text all over them. These are just some examples, yet other webpages like this one spans the entire screen and looks normally. Is there something I need to change?

[Ridgerunr]

Many web sites have their pages set to view at 800x600, if you have your monitor set to,say,1024x768, there will be blank space at the side(s) of such web pages...

[BigTimeNovice]

Ridgerunr,

Thanks for the reply. I guess I can't do anything then. Having the resolution on anything else but what I have (1400 x 1050) makes the sharpness extremely poor. What's weird is that my friend's computers (and I assume most others) are not at 800x600 and these pages do not show up like that.

[Miz]

I have the resolution set at 1024 X 768 and I run across quite a few pages that are displayed on only about 2/3 of the width of the screen. That happens when the author of the web site defines the size of the page in number of pixels instead of percentage of the window.

[dunedin]

BigTimeNovice,
Sorry to change the subject, but I have Dell Inspiron 5100 on my short list for when I need a new laptop. I would appreciate your comments on it please. You say you love it. Is it that good? Can you give me any pros/cons you have found? A user`s opinions are always good to know.
Thanks very much

Elaine

[BigTimeNovice]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I guess that's just the way the web pages will be displayed.

Dunedin, I truly enjoy this laptop. Here are some pros/cons:


Pros: Fast, great screen, Decent battery life (about 1.5 hrs with normal, non-gaming use), nice sized keyboard, free built-in wi-fi antenna if you buy dell's wireless card*, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire port, touchpad mouse with programmable touchpad locations, Full Pentium4.

Cons: Kinda Heavy (~8lbs), Costly but overall best price/quality ratio IMO, more thicker than thin, gets semi-hot but cooler than most laptops i've used.

* I did not get an integrated card although in retrospect I feel that I should've b/c it is very cumbersome to load and unload the wireless card.

Hope this helped!

[dunedin]

BigTimeNovice,
Thanks for the info. The Dell will stay on the top of my list. I very much like the look of it too.

Elaine