Hey all,<br />
<br />
Just got asked to revamp a sight for someone. my problem being havent used much else since frames. What is the best platform to build with and who has the simplist users guide for it on the web? Need to make it load fast ans be easy to update. easier the better. heres the site fullforce RC (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.fullforcerc.com">http://www.fullforcerc.com</a><!-- m -->) <br />
<br />
-Me-<!--content-->best platform? do you have access to macs as well?<br />
<br />
also to make it easy to update then you would want to use a serverside language. anything but html will be easier to update as you can include files, etc to make the menus and such.<!--content-->Skitz, the platform shouldn't matter when you're building a site. I use a Mac for my site building, but it's just as easy to read the site on a PC as it is on my Mac. And, come to think of it, some of the pages were designed on a PC, but beats me now, which ones. *g* They all look the same.<br />
<br />
Most of my page work has been done with Dreamweaver. With it, I can create template pages that are simple enough to update. *g* I just need to remember to double check the links and to put the template page on my site, as well as the pages I've created using it.<br />
<br />
I've seen the site. I think you could get away with a basic table layout. Something like:<br />
<br />
<body><br />
<table><br />
<tr><td colspan="2">Logo centered here</td></tr><br />
<tr><td colspan="2">Navigation menu here.</td></tr><br />
<tr><td rowspan="x">Left side bar here</td><br />
<td>Main information here, with as many rows as needed for each different piece</td></tr><br />
<tr><td colspan="2">Copyright and Other Information</td></tr><br />
</table><br />
</body><br />
<br />
If you need a hand, give me a shout. I'll do what I can.<br />
<br />
Peg<!--content-->I personally find HTML + CSS easier to maintain and debug than tables. It might be a bit tricky to get that exact same layout using CSS, but you're supposed to revamp it, right? If you use external style sheets, then you get the added bonus of the user agent only having to Download <!--more--> that style once. When the user goes to a new page on your site, just the content is Download <!--more-->ed. The CSS file (which is linked to in the HTML file) does not need to be Download <!--more-->ed again. That cuts down on the tag soup, lowering page sizes and server bandwidth used. I'm not doing a very good job of explaining this. A quick search on Google.com for CSS tutorials gives you a rather large list to choose from. For the official documents, you can go to the W3C cascading style sheets level 1 recommendation (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1">http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1</a><!-- m -->) and the W3C cascading style sheets level 2 recommendation (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/">http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/</a><!-- m -->). Remember, too, that you need to make sure your HTML is well structured and excludes as many deprecated tags as possible. You can go to the W3C HTML 4.01 specification (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/">http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/</a><!-- m -->) for the official rules and also use the W3C HTML validator (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://validator.w3.org/">http://validator.w3.org/</a><!-- m -->) to check your code for errors.<br />
<br />
As for platform, that doesn't matter. If you mean what tools you will need, my personal favorite is TextPad. A lot of people here use Notepad, which comes with Windows. Yes, that means doing all of the coding by hand, but that is the best way to learn it and the best way to make sure that there is no bloat in the page. I use TextPad because it does color, so the tags are a different color than the comments and all that.<!--content-->
<br />
Just got asked to revamp a sight for someone. my problem being havent used much else since frames. What is the best platform to build with and who has the simplist users guide for it on the web? Need to make it load fast ans be easy to update. easier the better. heres the site fullforce RC (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.fullforcerc.com">http://www.fullforcerc.com</a><!-- m -->) <br />
<br />
-Me-<!--content-->best platform? do you have access to macs as well?<br />
<br />
also to make it easy to update then you would want to use a serverside language. anything but html will be easier to update as you can include files, etc to make the menus and such.<!--content-->Skitz, the platform shouldn't matter when you're building a site. I use a Mac for my site building, but it's just as easy to read the site on a PC as it is on my Mac. And, come to think of it, some of the pages were designed on a PC, but beats me now, which ones. *g* They all look the same.<br />
<br />
Most of my page work has been done with Dreamweaver. With it, I can create template pages that are simple enough to update. *g* I just need to remember to double check the links and to put the template page on my site, as well as the pages I've created using it.<br />
<br />
I've seen the site. I think you could get away with a basic table layout. Something like:<br />
<br />
<body><br />
<table><br />
<tr><td colspan="2">Logo centered here</td></tr><br />
<tr><td colspan="2">Navigation menu here.</td></tr><br />
<tr><td rowspan="x">Left side bar here</td><br />
<td>Main information here, with as many rows as needed for each different piece</td></tr><br />
<tr><td colspan="2">Copyright and Other Information</td></tr><br />
</table><br />
</body><br />
<br />
If you need a hand, give me a shout. I'll do what I can.<br />
<br />
Peg<!--content-->I personally find HTML + CSS easier to maintain and debug than tables. It might be a bit tricky to get that exact same layout using CSS, but you're supposed to revamp it, right? If you use external style sheets, then you get the added bonus of the user agent only having to Download <!--more--> that style once. When the user goes to a new page on your site, just the content is Download <!--more-->ed. The CSS file (which is linked to in the HTML file) does not need to be Download <!--more-->ed again. That cuts down on the tag soup, lowering page sizes and server bandwidth used. I'm not doing a very good job of explaining this. A quick search on Google.com for CSS tutorials gives you a rather large list to choose from. For the official documents, you can go to the W3C cascading style sheets level 1 recommendation (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1">http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1</a><!-- m -->) and the W3C cascading style sheets level 2 recommendation (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/">http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/</a><!-- m -->). Remember, too, that you need to make sure your HTML is well structured and excludes as many deprecated tags as possible. You can go to the W3C HTML 4.01 specification (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/">http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/</a><!-- m -->) for the official rules and also use the W3C HTML validator (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://validator.w3.org/">http://validator.w3.org/</a><!-- m -->) to check your code for errors.<br />
<br />
As for platform, that doesn't matter. If you mean what tools you will need, my personal favorite is TextPad. A lot of people here use Notepad, which comes with Windows. Yes, that means doing all of the coding by hand, but that is the best way to learn it and the best way to make sure that there is no bloat in the page. I use TextPad because it does color, so the tags are a different color than the comments and all that.<!--content-->