lazycat — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:04:43 +0000

Thank you for the links.. and hints

Abhishek Reddy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:42:37 +0000

lazycat;208989 wrote: I believe that a website should be an experience and not just another brick plastered between browser’s bars.

I understand your broad intention, especially given the nature of CaveArt. But you can break the mould without breaking usability or accessibility.

I'd challenge the idea that a website's scope exceeds the pane in which it's displayed. I don't expect websites I visit to rearrange my desktop or change my wallpaper, so why should it resize my windows?

(Popup windows are an unfortunate exception that I think were invented -- at least, used -- without considerable foresight. Like frames, the DOM "Window" object is best left alone, imo.)

lazycat;208989 wrote: I don’t want to force anything, but just would like to have a user-friendly way for switching to fullscreen and back.

Sorry, I had initially misread your post and thought you wanted to auto-load fullscreen mode.

Pretty much the only user-friendly way is to leave it to the browser's own shortcut. That's what it's there for, and if the user wants to use it, they will.

It can be troublesome making this work for everyone, modern browser or otherwise. Once a window exists, there's not much you can do about its display mode from Javascript. You could physically resize and shift the window so it's big enough that the toolbars/etc aren't in the visible region of the screen...

But as with popups, various browsers may well ignore this behaviour. Also bear in mind that those using multi- or wide-screen displays could get an unsatisfactory result. Point is, you're better off creating a unique style, design and feel, than reinventing bits of the browser.

Achieving this is in itself an art. Are there any designs or websites that you particularly like, or have inspired you? Not to suggest you imitate them, but you could learn how and why they work -- most likely don't need window-adjusting functionality.

F11

lazycat — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 13:10:34 +0000

I believe that a website should be an experience and not just another brick plastered between browser’s bars. On my website I am trying to archive a mild 3D effect and thinking that encouraging people to view it fullscreen would be beneficial. I don’t want to force anything, but just would like to have a user-friendly way for switching to fullscreen and back.

I’ve already incorporated familiar icons in the top-right coner (my sandbox website: CaveArt) and would like to link them to “F11” function of the browsers… if possible.

Thank you for your help

Abhishek Reddy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 11:42:13 +0000

Do you really need to?

Best not to do it. Unfortunately, it's invasive and unexpected, which really hurts usability. And that's not just within your site. Since it may, for instance, be loaded in a tab, flipping the window to fullscreen could limit access to other tabs and irk the user. Same applies if the user was working between windows or applications, etc.

As a general rule, don't mess with the browser window when you can avoid it (which is almost always). That includes opening, closing, and resizing windows. You've enough of a canvas within the normal display area to be expressive and present unique designs, if that's what you're after.

Edit: Just realised you don't want exactly the same thing as in the linked thread. Still, most graphical browsers have full screen buttons and keyboard shortcuts; again, do you really need your own buttons?

[I've split your post from the old thread because it was ancient. You can simply link to older threads instead of reviving them. :)]