Div based Page layout - percentage vs fixed pixels

I am new to Div based Page Layouts. My questions is should we design div based page layouts using percentage or fixed pixel?

If percentage, what about cro开发者_运维百科ss browser compatibility?

If fixed pixels, what about different screen resolution? What screen resolution should we opt for?

Also, what should be the bases for our decision?

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Most div based page layouts use fixed pixel widths, not percentages.

Using percentages has its advantages in very few scenarios - if you have a page that you want to change width based on window/browser, you'd use this. But I honestly can't think of the last time I saw a site that did this.

Fixed pixel widths allows you to actually design what your site will look like regardless of browser, screen resolution...etc.

When creating a layout with fixed widths, usually you create a "container" div that is around 960px wide (see http://960.gs/). This width is used because it fits most browsers/screen resolutions (eg - anything 1024x768 and above)

The "container" is usually centered on the page (though sometimes it's left aligned) - for examples, see msn.com, yahoo.com, stackoverflow.com ...etc. These are all fixed widths, not percentage (you can test this by changing the size of your window and seeing that their content does not change)