[hamp]

Hello,

I really hope someone can help with this. I've have spent way too much time searching the net with no luck.

I hear a lot of good designers say, "use nothing but a text editor". I've actually worked in a couple IDE's as well as DW and the new MS Expression Web, but I really do like the idea of a text editor only. However, I have not been able to figure out how to make a "template" when using just a text editor.

MS uses Master Pages. A lot of WYSIWYG apps use dynamic web templates.
And then other then that it seems that it just frames and/or tables.

I think we're probably all burnt out on that frames / tables / css subject, but I would like to know what you use in their absence at least as they pertain to a "template".

Everyone is always saying, use CSS for your layout and get rid of frames and tables.

Well that's just fine and I've become very familiar with CSS but I'm missing the "template" part of that if it's possible.

Basically, I want my header, nav, sidebar and footer to be static. I don't want to have to include those on every single page in my site. But I also don't want to use Master Pages either. I've heard about using Server Side includes as well.

I"d luv to be able to have a template that is not using frames or tables but that is also not having to rely on server side stuff either.

Are there any other options ? Javascript ? AJAX ? Where I could have an
index.html that has a header, nav, sidebar, footer and then a content area
where other html pages could be populated ?

So far the best solution I've come up with is including the header, nav, side bar in every page, wrapping those in div's and then linking an external stylesheet to each. That accomplishes the non server side stuff, and the site is fast, but having to update every file / page for a change sucks.

Sorry about the long post, but I've seriously spent ton's of time looking so I hope someone can help.

[hamp]

I know there are a lot of guru's out there, so I hope someone can help with this.

Thanks

[stickmus]

Sounds like you need to learn HTML:

http://www.htmldog.com/guides/htmlbeginner/

[hamp]

I actually know quite a bit of HTML. Are you suggesting that because you're suggesting using frame's and/or tables for the layout and therefore the template ?

[stickmus]

Sorry, didn't read most of what you wrote. Have you googled "css frame"?

[hamp]

No. But since frames are a bad thing, should I spend time researching ? Or are you saying that CSS frames are different ?

[nkulmati]

Dude, what is wrong with server side scripting ??

Eg. you could have spent all that tons of time checking out how to do the basic includes, so that you would have your template done by now!

And btw, AJAX relies on server-side scripting as well, and nobody makes javascript templates, and I don't even get how you were gonna use tables for dynamic content... So you're left with two choices: frames or server-side scripts. Frames retired long ago. So just one choice

[hamp]

If Server Side scripting is the only way to go then it's the only way to go. I'm cool with that.

To confirm, is that what you're saying ? Don't use frames, tables, or dynamic web templates ? And use Server Side includes ?

If that's the case, is that PHP specific ?

[pgo]

All server-side languages have some form of include, as far as I know.

[hamp]

So it sounds like the answer thus far to my question is Server Side includes to creat this template.

Does anyone suggest ASP.NET Master Pages even for small sites ?

[RaelRode]

You don't create a template with server Side Includes. You make it in graphics software eg Photoshop. Then you code it in a text editor/DreamWeaver. You need CSS, HTML and this line of code.

PHP Code:

<? php include("pagename.ext"); ?>

Where pagename is the name of your page and .ext s the extension of the page. You need this on every page one at the top and one at the bottom.