Unfortunately for surfers everywhere, it is all too easy to create a bad website. Besides blatant abuse of flashing graphics and midi songs, one of the biggest mistakes a new webmaster can make is not testing his or her page at different screen resolutions.

Everyone has different screen sizes
Webpages look different on different monitors because of the different screen resolutions. Screen resolutions relate to pixels and the rate at which lines are drawn on a monitor. Generally 14-inch monitors work best at 640x480, whereas 17-inch monitors work best at 1,024x768, but you can change your resolution to whatever pleases you.

Since you have no idea what visitors to your site will be using to view your page, you need to make your site look good in all resolutions. Sure, you can do this by changing your own resolution every time you make a change to your site, but there is an easier way.

See how you look to the world
Thanks to Greg from O'Fallon, Missouri, for recommending Size-O-Matic. It's a free and easy download that lets you test your page in any screen resolution. Size-O-Matic offers four common sizes and also gives you the option to enter custom resolutions. Just click on the size you want, drag it to your page, and click again.

Download Size-O-Matic

Coming up: Patriotic Screen Savers