First website: design dilemmas

[Nick]

I am putting together a website in Frontpage and am a beginner (ie, don't
know HTML -- but do know programming concepts from Basic and Pascal from a
previous life). My question is on the site structure and navigation. The site
will feature recipes and I want to have a side bar with drop down boxes where
one can sort recipes by location, type, main ingredient etc. I initially
tried a basic layout that I replicated on every new page, but the trick is
that I enter recipes in drop down boxes manually. You can imagine the issue:
if I add a recipe, I need to update links in boxes in every single page of
the site! So my next finding was to use frames: I put the drop down boxes in
a frame hoping that I would only have to update the side frame once when I
add recipes. What happens when I did this is that I could not save frames
individually... the entire page (3 frames) was saved in total, defeating the
purpose. I then read that frames aren't a good idea for many reasons. So I'm
back to square 1. I would also try to let Frontpage make the side navigation
bars but I have to say these look very amaterish, even to my beginner
standards... any advice? I'm looking a simple solution and if possible would
like to avoid going down storing everything in a database...

Thanks!
Nick

 

[P@tty Ayers]

What you want is server-side includes. I'm not sure exactly how to use them
in FrontPage, but in another thread today it was posted that a search of the
Help files under "includes" should point you in the right direction.

 

[Tina Clarke]

I am putting together a website in Frontpage and am a beginner (ie, don't
know HTML -- but do know programming concepts from Basic and Pascal from a
previous life). My question is on the site structure and navigation. The site
will feature recipes and I want to have a side bar with drop down boxes where
one can sort recipes by location, type, main ingredient etc. I initially
tried a basic layout that I replicated on every new page, but the trick is
that I enter recipes in drop down boxes manually. You can imagine the issue:
if I add a recipe, I need to update links in boxes in every single page of
the site! So my next finding was to use frames: I put the drop down boxes in
a frame hoping that I would only have to update the side frame once when I
add recipes. What happens when I did this is that I could not save frames
individually... the entire page (3 frames) was saved in total, defeating the
purpose. I then read that frames aren't a good idea for many reasons. So I'm
back to square 1. I would also try to let Frontpage make the side navigation
bars but I have to say these look very amaterish, even to my beginner
standards... any advice? I'm looking a simple solution and if possible would
like to avoid going down storing everything in a database...

Try http://allwebmenus.com their drop downs work with FrontPage Includes and
shared borders.

Tina


--
http://accessfp.net/ - FrontPage Tutorials
http://anyfrontpage.com/ - http://frontpage-ebooks.com/
http://addonfp.com/ - FrontPage Addons
http://frontpage-tips.com/ - Weekly FrontPage Tips
http://msmvps.com/blogs/frontpage/ - FrontPage News Blog
http://frontpage-blog.com/ - FrontPage Blog
http://clarke-abstract-art.com/ - Original Abstract Pen and Ink Drawings

 

[Viken Karaguesian]

What happens when I did this is that I could not save frames

individually... the entire page (3 frames) was saved in total, defeating
the
purpose.

I think you misunderstood the save dialog box. It will show the frames being
saved together as one "frames" page, but the individual pages with in the
frame are still, well, individual pages. Try again. However, frames are
*not* the best way to go.

For a good DHTML menu system go to www.milonic.com. The menu is free if you
want to provide their link or you can buy a licence for it and not have to
put the link. I use their menu system here:

http://home.comcast.net/~vikenk
www.sayatnova.com
www.ssaes.org/test_site_2 (unfinished)

 

[Trevor L.]

I'm looking a simple solution and if possible would like to
avoid going down storing everything in a database...

I have spent a few days making my site frameless

You can read the thread
Re: Creating a frameless site - how do I position my <div>s

The answers were simple once I got the hang of it

Some very helpful persons have been Viken and Murray (MVP)

Murray (and now Viken) has always been particularly keen to promote
frameless sites, so I am feeling happier now I am nearly there.

If you can use Server Side Inclueds, then by all means do so.

But I can't. So the trick is to make a template, into which you insert code
for each new page

You can see what I have done so far on
http://tandcl.homemail.com.au/newweb/index.html

I will be changing it as I get it better.
Eventually, it will all be on http://tandcl.homemail.com.au/index.html