Optimum ps site size

I know that 800 wide is a good size, and probably a stupid question, but how tall would you make a business site as far as being reasonable?

You can start out at 600px, but there really is no site height. If someone's screen resolution is 1024x768, thats the minimum they will see anyways (if their window is maxed in size). What you want to avoid is too much vertical scroll. That indicates you have too much content going on the page and you should break it up a bit.

You shouldn't actually use the full 800 px for width. You should allow 20-40 px for the scroll bar. Vertical all depends on what menus etc a user has turned on at the top of the browser as to how much of the site will be "above the fold" to use a print term. One rule of thumb is to have the most important hook or content within the first 450 px vertical.

I have some screen grabs of my favorite browser at different screen resolutions with the content area 'cut-out' and overlay these as reference layers as I'm working on a template in PS.

I would have to agree with Dan here... Go for 800 minus 40 or so for vertic scrollbar.... Just make sure you have no horizontal scroll bar when you preview your site on a 800x600 screen.

Saying that however, going forward, the sites I run will likely be set up primarily for 1024x800 users... Perhaps with a 950 or 1000 width.

You could always use a javascript screen resolution identifier and do two versions! We do this on http://www.supercheats.com just take a look at the source code towards the top and you should see it.

Also, ideally the user should not have to scroll down to get the key information on the page.

I still make sites for 800 x 600, because even though my resolution is 1680 x 1050, I don't maximize my browsers to that huge size, I still keep them in small windows.

And those javascript checkers don't really work because they only detect the screen resolution, not the actual size of the window. So it'll still most likely be wrong.