Comments Text-Box Width

March 4, 2006 2:09 PM

Ponyfilter: It'd be really nice if the 'Comments' entry box could be the full width of the browser. MeFi does an excellent job in handling widescreen monitors in all respects but that one. [bit more inside]
posted by Malor to Feature Requests at 2:09 PM (17 comments total)

Well, I tried to embed a thumbnail, but MeFi seems to be stripping it out. So:

This is a 192x120 thumbnail.

This is the full-size 1920x1200 JPG.

I don't know if it can be set to automatically resize to fit the screen width, but as you can see, the comment entry box is pretty cramped, at least at larger font sizes. My eyes aren't great and I sit back from the screen a ways, so I crank the fonts up.

Not a big deal, just a nice-to-have. This site is already leaps-and-bounds better than most... many sites insist on jamming themselves into a FIXED-SIZE COLUMN in the middle of the screen. So don't think I'm ungrateful!
posted by Malor at 2:14 PM on March 4, 2006

Oh, those are self-linked images. Not sure if it matters, but just in case.
posted by Malor at 2:16 PM on March 4, 2006

there's a firefox extension that does this, I believe.
posted by puke & cry at 2:22 PM on March 4, 2006

The problem is that textareas are specified in rows and columns. So, there's no way to give a relative size -- what might be the right width for you would cause other people's screen to have to scroll. You can't just say "width=75%" like you can with normal block elements. The only realistic way to do this is to specify the size as the lowest common denominator. As a workaround some sites let you configure this in your profile, but it's still a per-user fixed setting -- it wouldn't vary with the screen width.

If you're using firefox, install the Resizeable Textarea extension. But this is still not automatic, it just gives you the ability to drag the box by its edges.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:34 PM on March 4, 2006

Um. Veto.

I absolutely hate renegade textareas that think it's okay to span the width of the screen. It makes things much more difficult to review and it hurts.
posted by disillusioned at 2:38 PM on March 4, 2006

I think it's more extreme for you because the textbox's width is given in pixels, and your font is very large compared to, say, mine. I find it a little small but it's still 50 characters wide by 12 lines high.

That said, expressing an input textbox's size by pixels is a bit of an odd thing to do because the font size starts mattering then. Matt, how about making it, say, 60-70 characters wide instead of 120 pixels?
posted by mendel at 2:38 PM on March 4, 2006

Yeah, I wouldn't mind the comment and live preview boxes being somewhat wider. Maybe half or a third again as wide as it is now?
posted by mediareport at 3:49 PM on March 4, 2006

The problem is that textareas are specified in rows and columns. So, there's no way to give a relative size

Wrong. Through the magic of CSS, I could set them to relative sizes, it's just at the moment they are fixed at 400px wide, 150px or so tall. I've been thinking about making them resizable or just a percentage, so thanks for the reminder.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:35 PM on March 4, 2006

I think Malor should admit that this is just a thinly veiled brag about his 24" LCD.

;-)
posted by disillusioned at 5:07 PM on March 4, 2006

MetaFilthy does this.
posted by knave at 5:21 PM on March 4, 2006

LOL disillusioned! No, I've had it for more than a year now, I'm long past bragging about it. And they're not as pricey as you'd think. I've seen this model, the Dell 2405FPW, at $779 a few times. It's a truly excellent monitor, and a screaming deal if you get it at that price.

I just got annoyed when I was answering a question in AxeMe, and thought I'd say something.

Thanks for looking into it, Matt.... I wish you had a beer fund. Somehow, buying sockpuppets seems so... hokey. :-)
posted by Malor at 5:35 PM on March 4, 2006

Rhomboid writes "So, there's no way to give a relative size "

Ya, ortho has figured it out. You need to reload the page if you resize the browser but otherwise it works flawlessly.
posted by Mitheral at 5:37 PM on March 4, 2006

Mitheral writes "You need to reload the page if you resize the browser but otherwise it works flawlessly."


I decided not to do it dynamically because that adds overhead, and I figured people don't resize too often in the midst of commenting.
posted by orthogonality at 5:55 PM on March 4, 2006

You decided not to do it dynamically?
posted by Kwantsar at 10:10 PM on March 4, 2006

This way isn't a problem. The only reason I notice it is every once and a while I'll have 30+ MF tabs in FF maximized on my external monitor and then drag it over to my built in and all the boxes are a touch to large. A quick right click refresh all fixes it.
posted by Mitheral at 1:02 AM on March 5, 2006

The resizable textarea Firefox extension that Rhomboid mentions only works for Firefox versions 0.9 to 1.01, BTW.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:27 AM on March 6, 2006

Rhomboid: "The problem is that textareas are specified in rows and columns. So, there's no way to give a relative size -- what might be the right width for you would cause other people's screen to have to scroll. You can't just say "width=75%" like you can with normal block elements. The only realistic way to do this is to specify the size as the lowest common denominator. As a workaround some sites let you configure this in your profile, but it's still a per-user fixed setting -- it wouldn't vary with the screen width."

True with just HTML, but if you're using CSS (which, dear god, I hope you are), this is easy to the nth degree.

textarea {
    width: 75%;
    }

If MSIE played nice, you could even do something like:

textarea {
    width: 75%;
    max-width: 25em;
    }
posted by Plutor at 4:08 AM on March 6, 2006