How to Adapt Your Site to Different Window Sizes | Web Resources | WebAppers
Modern browsers like Internet Explorer 10 support the width and height properties of the W3C Working Draft CSS Device Adaptation. This gives Web developers a simple tool to control automatic content scaling across various window dimensions. In particular, it enables sites to easily adapt to Windows 8 browsing on touch-enabled tablet devices in the snapped view and in portrait orientation.
Auto-Scaling and When It Is Used
Most websites have prioritized optimization for a 1024 pixel wide window. This ensures a good user experience for a wide variety of displays when the browser is maximized. However, sites may not work well on new form factors like tablets and portrait screen orientation if they haven’t optimized for other window sizes as well. In particular, pages often clip or distort layout when viewed in a narrow width.
This narrow layout is particularly important in Windows 8, where the snapped view of the browser is in this exact state. This situation also occurs for portrait mode on slate devices due to the smaller form factor.