Basic page layout concepts

[John C]

So I've used Nettalk servers for many years, but never one that dished out web pages. That's about to change ... ;-)

I've looked at the docs, looked at the forums, read up about CSS and done all the basics, including looking at every example. I'm trying to get an idea of how to lay out a page (I've got specifics in mind) and how to drop things into that layout. In other words, like this page there are options on the left and right hand margins, menu at the top, and all that. It looks like any other site (said in a good way, mind you). How do I accomplish this in a Web Server app? Do I take, say the index page and put lot's of handcode or In a nutshell, I like to the overall layout of the ClarionShop site (running via a Nettalk Server if I'm correct). Was that site constructed with lot's of hand-code or by simply adding functionality by filling in the correct prompts (for the most part)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated - any explicit examples (or pointing me to one I may have missed) or a doc (I may have also missed) would be awesome. As a sidenote, I'm planning on attending the Denver seminar (remotely), however I have some time constraints on a rollout and am chomping at the bit, so to speak.

Thanks!

John Cortenbach

[Bruce]

Hi John,

This is not atypical of users the first time they begin. There really is so much to learn that almost everything becomes a question.

Unfortunately your question is either answered glibly (use CSS and other stuff in the header and footer procedures to determine overall layout), or gets quite complex as it involves a reasonable understanding of CSS.

With these constraints in mind, here is a reasonable starting position. Don't get too bogged down by this though at this stage. whatever you come up with you'll want to change it as you get more experienced. So get "something" going for now, with the understanding that it's simple to change later on, without having to re-visit all your browses etc.

a) make a site without frames
b) add a Header and Footer procedure, like say the ones in example 3.
c) add a menu to the header procedure. If you want eh vertical menu on the left then by all means use that. See the menus example for how the menu on the left works with a browse on the right.

It's possible to have a "right hand side" to the page as well, but I think for now you might be better off without that. You can add it in later if you like, but having the flexibility to extend a page to the right can come in handy.

Cheers
Bruce

[John C]

Bruce,

Thanks for the response - your answer is what I was hoping for as I have a number of small projects already underway and I was worried I was boxing myself in with a lot of work down the road ...

Thanks,

John C