Could I just ask if the huge, pointless margins are staying?

You will probably find this page explains these things better than I do....

Trinity - that may be because of the picture you are using for your desktop - do you still get the black borders if you use one of the Windows pictures and put it on 'Stretch'

I'm not sure what to suggest if the View-Text size on IE doesn't work - there is an option under Tools-Options-Advanced-Accessibility to reset the text size to medium, but I couldn't get that to make any difference.

I think the margins there to try tocompromise between your problem and Starlight's, but unfortunately it's ended up with both of you unhappy.

The trouble is there are so many different types of monitor these days, with different sizes, proportions & resolutions that it makes scaling websites very difficult - you usually have to make some compromises between allowing the page to rescale & making sure all the navigation bits are consistently in the right place - getting it right can be a very long process....

Starlight - do you mean the font on your desktop is now too small - you can change the font size, but I'm on Vista here & I can't remember exactly where to go for XP - but it should be somewhere ibn the same dialogue box as you used to change your resolution.
If it's just the website font, try the View - Font size option in IE or Tools-Options-Content-Font size in Firefox

I am yes, IE 7

but 1024 x 768 just makes me have HUGE black borders for the ENTIRE pooter

why cant mn just be like it was

who thought sodding great white borders were a good idea?

Trinity - are you on Internet Explorer?

Starlight - can you do the opposite to Trinity - zoom out instead of in until your horizontal scroll bar disappears and then increase the text size?

Otherwise you might want to look at your screen resolution - I don't know what MN have optimized for but 1024x768 is a common choice.

What does this site look like to you?

rustybear I have zoomed and then tried to make text smaller but it didn't do it

OK,trinity, once you have zoomed, then you can resize the text - if you are on IE, go to View-Text size & choose a smaller size, on Firefox, it's Tools-Options-Content & you can choose the size. The advantage of Firefox is that it will keep your zoom setting for that page, and that page only, whereas IE won't & you have to rezoom each time you reopen your browser. Unfortunately the text size change does seem to affect all your tabs, which is a pain.
Personally I just put up with the text being bigger - it means I can MN on the sofa & with a wireless mouse have the laptop further away, leaving room for my book in between. Of course, if I want to type I have to reach over, but I've heard there is an application I can download to turn my iPhone into a wireless keyboard.....

yes I've tried zooming but then all the text is big enough to read through a closed door

Have you tried the zooming in,trinity?

My method works

[margin free]

although you do end up with a big sidebar

just done that onelie and it makes no difference whatsoever

still 3 inches total white bits, bloody horrible

problem here as well

I believe the margins are only a problem if you have a big/wide screen.

With Firefox, if you have a side bar in use and you make that wider, the margins shrink.

its the not collapsing inward bit thats annoying when trying to do 2 things at once, makes it v hard to read

You can change your screen resolution down and then the margins disappear and it is more like the 'old school' look and feel.

To do this, right click on your desktop, go into Properties and on the last tab, adjust the slider down to 1024 * 768 or similar.

Those of you who are complaining about the margins - do you ever go on the BBC news site? Because that has exactly the same set-up - it's so that people who are using low-resolution monitors don't lose the edges. If you have the margins you can zoom in until they disappear - and if you use Firefox 3 it will keep it that way for MN without affecting other sites you visit.
If you still have a scrolling problem even when your window is maximised you don't have the same options, as zooming out may make the text too small to read properly. On Firefox you can go into Tools-Options-Content & change the font size once you have zoomed, but if you make it too big it will start to overspill from the graphics, so you might need gto experiment a bit to get the right combination.
Changing the screen resolution to a higher one may help, but it would mean everything is smaller.

I don't get these margins at all really. I have a 19inch screen. On the left I have my favourites box, going from top to bottem, and then the rest of the screen with MN on.
We also have Adaware installed and trust me, I get no adverts at all.

The width of the page is set, it doesn't change when you resize the IE window. Weird. The margins will bug me, so I'm keeping the window narrow.

I quite like it but I'm not keen on not being able to see the whole thread title on active convos. It will change how people post - I liked the long rambling thread titles, they told me enough to know whether I wanted to bother diving in.