[Question] Responsive website tools.

[IanF]

Hi
I need to redo my website and the current trend is responsive website.
This means the same web site is used for the cellphone and the widescreen desktop as well as everything inbetween. Which is what is needed as you never know whether your customers are viewing the site on their phone or 24 inch monitor.
Has anyone done this?
What is the easiest way to do this?
I have looked at a few video tutorials and they seem to change the code in a CSS file which looks cumbersome.
Any places to start looking, I suspect that some tutorials might be in order or do the tools need to be looked at first.

[Justloadit]

The easiest is to register a xxxx.mobi site, in which the content is specifically for cellphones. This can be advertised with your normal website.
If I am not mistaken, any other way is left to the browser to select what to display, and this requires some software programming of the web site to accommodate the display required by the browser..

[IanF]

Have a look at contents magazine Here the same webpage is displayed whether it is your phone or widescreen. There are not bottom scroll bars on the phone. That is what I hope to achieve.
Them no apps needed or mobi sites.
Just a nice web design tool is needed to do it.

[Mark Atkinson]

Hi Ian,

We work extensively with responsive websites. Unfortunately the only way to do it effectively is by modifying the CSS.

While there are plugins for CMS (Wordpress) sites that advertise making your theme responsive, we haven't found one that does it well yet. There are always certain properties that escape the tool/plugin's reach.

The other thing to consider is that often you actually don't want certain pieces of your site to show on mobile devices, that would otherwise show on a desktop browser. Here it becomes necessary to exclude these via CSS. (The easiest option)

[IanF]

Thanks Mark, what worries me is customising the theme and then having to refix it each time there is an update to wordpress.
Anyway do you recommend using wordpress.

[Mark Atkinson]

There shouldn't really be any issues with updates to Wordpress unless it's a major structural update or your theme alters core Wordpress files, neither of which should really happen.

Also your stylesheet is independent of any updates (Other than the theme itself) so you wouldn't be losing any code really.
Lately we've only really worked with Wordpress as we've transitioned into providing a service more focused on marketing and returns for our clients, so yes I'd recommend it. You can make just about any site responsive though, regardless of what it's based on

[Zesty App Services]

I would say just to google "Free responsive Wordpress theme". There are a lot out there and Wordpress is quite easy to use and understand.