Orange Julius, rulius
600 pixels, or there abouts is sort of a standard. The deal is that 600 is the size that is the lowest common denominator. AT one time the largest number of users had 640x480 set as there monitor default and they either didnt know how to change it or wanted it that way. Now a days I think only 7% or so of users are still using 640. The largest percentage is 53% with 800x600. The question is do you want to excluded or at least alienate the 7% and design a better page for users with 800+ width. Those stats are a couple years old. People have better hardware now and are more savvy with comps. Personally I am begining to feel that catering to the 7% is getting a bit old and they need to be pushed along. So to make a long story short, go with your gut. I still stick with ~600, but I think I am going to can the idea soon given the limited numbers of 640 users. Also consider the market, overseas typically has computers a generation older or more, except western europe which is only half a gen behind. The reason for 600 and not 640 is to make up for any side toolbars, scrollbars, and other crap that may chew a small percentage of your horizontal width up.
The reason eLrockinator is able to change only the middle portion of the page is that he uses IFRAME. IFRAME SRC="merchandise_list.html" HEIGHT="325" WIDTH="415" FRAMEBORDER="0" is a tag he uses in the middle of a TABLE TD Tag... SO it is like traditional frames but a little more confined and less HTML. Check his source out for the two frames. They are nearly identical for the weblog portion and the merch portion. Only real difference between the two is the SRC call. One uses merchandise_list.html and the other uses blog.html. Then he has two html pages made up for the center portion of each page or the IFRAME portion.
L Jon Peterwoodington III the pillow case comment was quite funny and unexpected. Three cheers.
Bortz
PS the numbers I gave above are nearly 2 years old. The real stats I think are closer to 3% are 640x480 now. I can not seem to find that stats anymore.