Website questions.

[Mr_Threepwood]

Alright well I've been building my website for a bit now and I'm discovering a lot of new things but am currently stuck with a few things.

I've discovered that using HTML alone doesn't really let you do much since there are a lot of limitations, so here are things I'm stuck with and would like help with if possible.

1. I want my front page to have entries that are each formatted the same, so after some research it looks like using an XML file is the best way to do this. However my problem is that when I do try to use the XML file it always goes from the first id to the last one. I'd like it to go the other way so that each time I add a new entry I don't have to renumber every one.

2. I want every page I have to have a very similar layout, with the same side bars and top images, only having one section really changed. Is there a way that I can make sort of a template type thing so that when I make a new page I don't have to manually paste every thing in.

3. I also looked at layers, should I be using them? I thought the limitation on them was that it isn't easy to resize them when you put on new content, am I completely wrong here?

if you want to see the site (its not very nice right now) it's www.thescurvyshack.com

 

[office politics]

for 1 & 2, id prolly implement CSS

http://www.w3schools.com/css/

 

[Chris Graham]

Hi Guybrush. What you really want is a CMS/Portal/Website-engine, that'll make HTML to match data that you've inputted. I have to be very careful here... I make one, but I didn't come here to advertise and I don't want to be banned so you might want to google around for what you need or click my sig IF that's what you want to do.

 

[Mr_Threepwood]

Alright thanks for the advice Chris Graham, but that sounds a bit too hard for a beginner like me to attempt. It's a website I'm making for fun so I'll start out learning the basics first. I'll check out how to use CSS better then maybe in a few months/year I'll redo the site using something more advanced.

 

[Chris Graham]

I'd say it would be easier. Clicking buttons rather than typing code . But if you want an understanding of the core web technology rather than spending time on other stuff built on top of that, you're probably on the right track as you are .

 

[Mr_Threepwood]

Oh now I see what you are talking about, it's a program that is used to make websites easier than if you actually have to do the HTML and CSS coding and such right.

It looks great but since I'm not making a business site or anything I might as well do it from scratch so that I can learn how it works and such.

Here's a question I couldn't find a definitive answer to. Will CSS actually let you do things like placement of tables and such. So that when I make a new blank page and attach the CSS it will put in all the tables and other stuff that I want to be on the page.

Or is my best bet to do this by making a page with no data in it, and then saving it as a template and using the template to make every new page after that?

 

[Chris Graham]

It's somewhere inbetween. CSS is for style/layout, whilst (X)HTML is for structuring data. So you'd:
1) make a very simple XHTML file. Call it a 'template' if you like to use that word
2) a CSS file that styles/lays-out the XHTML for your template
You'd tell the template where the CSS file is.

Then you'd use that same XHTML file template with new data, many times. So you're doing minimal duplication (because the template is very simple, like a shell for your data), and the real meaty stuff is in just one CSS file and not repeated at all.

Hopefully that wasn't confusing, but it's a bit hard to describe in a forum post . As csamuels pointed out, there are plenty of tutorials to go with.

 

[Mr_Threepwood]

So are you suggesting I also try to use xml as well by using xhtml intead of just html?

As far as I can tell from your explantion you mean this.

I have to place a table or something in the html file, but I can move it around and resize it and stuff in the css file.

I hope this will make more sense to me once I understand how css works better, I'll go through the tutorials on that site and hopefully after that it makes more sense.

 

[Chris Graham]

XHTML is just formalised HTML that follows the XML rules. It's just stricter, there's nothing very special or different.

I have to place a table or something in the html file, but I can move it around and resize it and stuff in the css file.

Yeah. Although you probably don't really want a table tag - you can use CSS with div tags and get better results.

 

[cedjunior]

The easy way to make all your pages look exacly the same is to use "Save As". Very simple. You make the initial web page with all the content that you wan to keep the same on all the pages. Yhen "Save As" Template.html (or whatever you're using). Then with that Template.html still open, do "Save As" Index.html. Close that, go back to the template.html and do "Save As" Page1.html and so on. You don't have to use those file names of course, but in effect when you use the Save As you're just making copies. If you're using an editor like Dreamweaver you can make an actual template, and it has a function that if you ever need to make changes to all the pages on the site, you just make the change in the template and it automatically does the changes in all the html files made from that template.