Long-time, nagging issue that seems to crop up more and more as resolutions start to change from the few options that once were.
I have a web site that uses frames - basically, a header / menu links on top and the content below.
It used to be that, so long as you viewed it in 1024 x 768 or better, you were fine (and the people that would contact me with viewing issues were typically on 800 x 600).
Nowadays, though, with laptop and wide screen monitors, I’m having issues there as well.
So my question - what’s the best way to tackle this? Add the header / menu links to every page available to click on or … ?
Between my knowledge and my copy of Dreamweaver, I should be able to re-do things that are needed…I’m just not sure of the best method that would solve the issue, no matter the visitors screen resolution.
I personally don’t like frames as they seem to cause more issues than they solve in the long run, which is why I have moved away from them to CSS2 and DIVs instead of tables to form my page content. They are more flexible and can be tailored to allow them them to be viewed in all browsers with a little tweaking
Admittedly they are a steep learning curve from old school HTML, but they offer more scope for web design. Frames caused me all sorts of problems especially when setting up payment systems and in the end I had to rewrite every page to include the same content (see Norton Ceramics. The site is still coded using tables and not the new style DIVs and CSS, but all the frames have been taken out to prevent the issues of frames appearing in the wrong frameset even when called to the correct id. Basically the payment handler could not cope with the frames and created a new web page in the destination frame instead of just the specific content.
Times move on and with CSS3 just around the corner, it might be worth updating the whole site. Bit of a pain, but the extra functionality will benefit the look and use of the site for your viewers, regardless of which browser they choose.
To save time and if you have a copy of it, Office Professional with Publisher has a facility to create pages like a PowerPoint document and then you can publish them as a website. They provide plenty of templates similar to what you describe and can be tweaked however you wish.
Might be an option as a short term fix. Also you could try something like a free program such as Web Dwarf to pull something together quickly.
Thanks, guys. As Droid pointed out…my HTML knowledge is more “old school” as I started with my first web pages back in 1993 and haven’t kept up w/the times as much once I got out of college and into the real world.
Sadly, my job in the hospital running the charting system in obstetrics doesn’t require web design. Haha.
I’ll def look into it, Droid. Thanks to you both for your feedback!
