Website basics

peanutismint

peanutismint

peanutismint

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Joined
5 Sep 2003
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760
Location
Cardiff Geordie
I'm making a site, and haven't done any website stuff since it was all frames and html back in school.... So I have a few relatively simple questions:

Page layout
I obviously want my pages split into sections - namely a section for a nav bar/menu (same on all pages), a section underneath for content (different on all pages), and maybe even a few more sections on some pages (for displaying recent updates or a Twitter feed or what have you).

Are people still using 'frames' to split stuff up? Or is there now a more clever (and less ugly) way to do this? Or are they just doing it by writing good code that keeps sections of a page where they want them?


Nav menu
I'm working under Dreamweaver and I've already made a nav menu, which I have then copied exactly to each subsequent page, but I didn't do it using the built-in tool because the design of the site - well - it's reliant on the site's logo, which is at the top of each page, actually BEING the nav-bar... So users click on different sections of the logo to navigate to different pages within the site....and therefore all of the button images need to be displayed just-so, so as to keep the logo looking how it should... I hope this kinda makes sense! :-)

I'm just wondering if there's a more clever way of making the nav-bar which would make it easier to use it on every page and keep all the links under control (for instance, if I change one of the links/add another link in the menu on one page, it'll be echoed automatically on all the other pages....?)



Just wanted some feedback on what are probably (hopefully!) relatively simple questions.

Thanks in advance! :)
 
peanutismint said:
I'm just wondering if there's a more clever way of making the nav-bar which would make it easier to use it on every page and keep all the links under control
Click to expand...

Use php includes so you only need to have one instance of your nav. You can then use php to add a selected or current class to whichever nav is active, or you can add body id combined with an id on the nav items and then just use simple css.

body#home #mainnav li a#nav-home { }
 
I'd love to do all that stuff, now if I could only work out what you just said... :)

Seriously, I'm less than a beginner, but thanks for the tip! It's pointed me in the right direction at least!
 
PHP includes are what you want for your nav matey, the good news is that they're fantastically simple to use!

For layout, CSS is the future without a doubt, and can produce some absolutely stunning layouts. If you're after something simpler, you can go with the old fashioned approach of using tables. Whilst their use as a layout tool is being deprecated, they are still very popular due to having far fewer cross browser bugs than CSS.
 
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