Am planning for a RE-do of my site and as it is getting unmanagable I am thinking of using many frames, will it be ok? Have heard that they increase load time of the pages.
Should I use frames on the left side...
are there any points to be kept in mind while re-designing? what else should I focus on, kindly suggest...

Regards,
Cipher

cipher wrote:

Am planning for a RE-do of my site and as it is getting unmanagable I am thinking of using many frames, will it be ok?

Why do you want to use frames?  If it's getting too much to maintain navigation etc. tell me which server side languages (PHP, ASP.Net) you have and I'll show you a better method.

cipher wrote:

Have heard that they increase load time of the pages.
Should I use frames on the left side...
are there any points to be kept in mind while re-designing?

Yes, they would increase load time, HTTP requests, server load.  They are also TERRIBLE for SEO purposes.  If you are going to use frames, use them for non-core parts, and use iFrames, as they are widely supported & a proper HTML specification.

cipher wrote:

what else should I focus on, kindly suggest...

Not using frames.

I say all this because I used to use them, but really, in the long run they are a bad idea.  If you want alternate suggestions just contact me.  (PM/Email, I don't care)

Usually the usuage of frames for the navigation causes decrease of loading-time, because only a part of the website is loaded. However, the usuage of frames is no longer favored. Reasons for this are great CSS-styling opportunities, eg. the scroll-function with CSS overflow: scroll(auto) is well supported.

aknet47 wrote:

Usually the usuage of frames for the navigation causes decrease of loading-time, because only a part of the website is loaded..

Ok I had a mis conception, I thought it increased the load time. Well I use frontpage for web development and so using I-frames is the only option in front of me... SO I hope Iframes won't be a bad choice afterall... and what about the SEO part? any suggestions?

For future projects Could you suggest good editors, i would like to work in java ie; JSP's and such stuff.

Not sure why you are considering the use of frames / iframes for navigation.

Are you looking for an easy way to include content that is the same on every page? If this is the case than you should use "includes".

With includes you have one page that holds the consistent content, such as your navigation. You then "include this on all the pages of your site. Then when you change a page url, anchor text or add a new page you make the change or addition on the included page, upload and all your pages have the new information. no frames and simple.

A better editor for you to use would be Dreamweaver, as this has easier management of programming languages that rely on the includes system. That being said, it will not be a WYSIWYG editor for making a dynamic website.

I remember when I first started making websites, about 10 years ago and I used Front Page. I got to know a professional website designer, and he looked at Front Page like it was a scurge on the internet, refusing to enter into discussions regarding the merits of it. I soon gave up on it, and started using Dreamweaver instead.


You could make a simple php website, by splitting your pages into four. e.g your index page will be made up of top.html, bottom.html, menu.html, and index.php. Then any other pages in your site will be able to use the same top, bottom, and menu.

Do this by getting the source code from your index page, and splitting into four, so that if you joined them back together, then they would look like your original page. In your index.php, you will insert this code, at the very top,

<?php

include("/home/Your server account here/public_html/pathe to your top.html file/top.html");

?>

Then at the very bottom, insert this code;

<?php

include("/home/Your server account here/public_html/pathe to your bottom.html");

?>

And wherever you want your menu to appear, insert this code;

<?php

include("/home/Your server account here/public_html/pathe to your menu.html");

?>

This will then apply to all your pages. e.g instead of aboutus.html, you will create aboutus.php, and use all your includes code.

Try that.

peaforabrain wrote:

You could make a simple php website, by splitting your pages into four. e.g your index page will be made up of top.html, bottom.html, menu.html, and index.php. Then any other pages in your site will be able to use the same top, bottom, and menu.

Very similar to what I do here: http://goldenlightsoft.org
I use three different pages:

Included header (including DOCTYPE etc.)
Page title
Included body (all until the shown on-page title)
Page content
Included end (includs the navigation system (I can put that after my main code thanks to a CSS layout))

It really makes things much easier, as I can add a new navigational link by editing one file.

yes includes is a great, simple way to do it and is very easy to implement without any heavy coding to learn!

iframes also have SEO issues.

peaforabrain wrote:

A better editor for you to use would be Dreamweaver,

Not completely true

Doesn't matter if you use DW or simple NotePad. DW, FP NP, or any other text editor out there. Free or paid will do you no good unless you learn to use it.

There are different ways of using includes. Most depend on the platform of the server and the type of pages you use for your site.
Examples;

<!--#include file="myfile.txt"-->



<!--#include virtual="/includes/myfile.txt"-->



<? include("myfile.php"); ?>



<!--webbot bot="include" u-include="http://www.example.com/includes/myfile.html" tag="body" -->



<?php include("/includes/myfile.html");?>

Matte wrote:

yes includes is a great, simple way to do it and is very easy to implement without any heavy coding to learn!

My entire site is a mass of includes, it is awesome, and makes adding a cms later much easier... this is of course just my opinion but to get the just of it, try adding a backend to a site built in frontpage (wheres the OMG WTF is That smiley? )

If possible one should try keep styles completely off page, it keeps things clean and easy to work through... frames would not benefit you especially when it comes to simple mixing and matching of suff. I have to use the iframe in my picture galleries and its a curse, those pages cant be optimized...