Question about website design and maintenance?

If you can’t use a server side scripting language like ASP or PHP, then you might consider AJAX. It uses javascript and the xml capabilities of the browser. A good tutorial is at: http://www.w3schools.com/ajax/ajax_httprequest.asp

i used ajax to build my online resume the same as you’re describing. http://www.garybryant.net

If you’re hosting plan accommodates ASP, you can use include files for the navigation elements. Add the include file to all of your pages and then, when you want to make a change, just make it to the appropriate include file, publish it, and you’re set. Play around w/ a test page b/f you start adding the include file to all of your pages.

Here’s a quick, simple example.

<table>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><!–#include virtual="/includes/logo.asp" –></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><!–#include virtual="/includes/nav.asp" –></td>
<td>Content Goes Here</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><!–#include virtual="/includes/footer.asp" –></td>
</tr>
</table>

Sorry all the above answers are horrible – frames is NOT the way to go.

there’s no ‘easy’ way to do it but I mostly use a combination of things – Dreamweavers template function allows you to build a page as a standard outline and define areas that can be edited. I have a site with 240+ pages – if the navigation items change all I need to do is change it on the one page and when saved dreamweaver automatically updates every page.

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the other thing to use is PHP include – I’m no expert on this but what I do is use this:

<ul id ="chlist">
<li><a href="charity-display.php?alpha=a-c">A - C</a></li>
<li><a href="charity-display.php?alpha=d-f">D - F</a></li>
</ul>

<?php
$alpha = $_GET["alpha"];
if ($alpha == "a-c"){
include("../charity-listings/a-c.php");
}

if ($alpha == "d-f"){
include("../charity-listings/d-f.php");
}
?>

charity-display.php?alpha=a-c is a link with a querystring (the ‘?’) so the page is told "alpha=a-c"

the bit below says if the querystring = a-c INCLUDE the page a-c.php.

so I can have a wesite with ONE page and a blank middle all the links are made of querystrings which will INCLUDE the content of that page – which should just be the content of the story or article or whatever it is you want to be shown.

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it’s also possible to have a blank page and insert a number of ‘includes’ into that. Say you design a page with your navigation area on it you could ‘include’ that code into a page that way yo only need to change that one page and every other page ’sucks’ that code in.
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Finally yes – CSS it a great way to change a site throughout – unfortunately it’s far too large a subject to go into here, you’d rally need to buy a book an learn by trial and error – or look at a website like the csszengarden.