newb with basic design question...

[anomaly24601]

hey guys,
i'm self-taught with limited knowledge so go easy on me

I am currently brainstorming a site for a small business of mine....it will only be maybe 10-12 pages or so....nothing flashy, no cart needed, just an information site....however, i will require the left and right menu columns to be frequently/easily updated without having to edit every single page...or to put it another way, i'd like to be able to edit one page with class times, etc and have it it show on all the other 12 pages....i'd like to stay away from a CMS if this can be achieved without it (i generally just buy clean templates and use dreamweaver and photoshop to customize them to my liking)...so, what can you guys suggest? any input would be greatly appreciated...

thank you

[vishalbiswas]

How about frames?
You can seggregate the browser windows in several sections including the left and right sidebars and load different documents on each frame. Then you just have to edit a single page and it will show up in all the pages.

Sent from my Nokia_XL

[mlseim]

Are you editing only text?

Or I should ask it this way ....

You mention class times?
Let's say the content you will be changing on your site could be done using a spreadsheet (like Excel).

If you could update one spreadsheet (with class times, or some other information) and that information automatically appeared on your website, would that be something you would like to have?

Also, is your website on a shared webhost, where you have access to the whole website and you can use PHP scripting?

[anomaly24601]

thanks for the suggestions guys...

vishalbiswas, frame hadn't even crossed my mind...that would be one solution....but now that i think about it, my only reservation about using frames is that i wouldn't want someone to somehow find me on a search engine, get directed to the wrong page/frame and get stuck in one frame...i seem to recall that used to be an issue back in the day, but things may have changed since then....

mlseim, yes i am editing only text on the right and possibly left sidebars...the right will have class times and the left will have current classes...the excel spreadsheet thing would work, but i have no idea how to implement that....i was thinking it might be just as simple for me to ftp into my root, open a particular page and edit the class times...i have no problems with that, but if the spreadsheet thing is simple to setup or less of a hassle than the ftp thing, then i would definitely consider that too...my website(s) are on my own shared hosting account (godaddy) so i can access whatever i need to...

[vishalbiswas]

You can do this, too.
Save the class timings and other data on a MySQL db server and have php snippets on both sides of the pages fetch the data whenever needed. Then you will just have to change their values in the db and all the pages will receive the updated data.

Sent from my Nokia_XL

[mlseim]

Get a Google Account Login.

You can use any email address for a Google Account (if you don't already have one).
https://accounts.google.com/signupwithoutgmail

Go to www.google.com/docs

Create a Spreadsheet and make columns of data.

PM me when you have this done.
I will then instruct you how to add me to your spreadsheet so I can see it.
In fact, you can add anyone to the spreadsheet if you have other people that will need to edit the data.
You only need to know the user's Google Account email address.

I will then write a PHP script for you that goes to your spreadsheet and gets your data from your spreadsheet. You will put that PHP scripting into your HTML page(s) where you want the information to appear.

That data can be displayed on any of your web pages, and can be styled or used however you wish.

The web pages that display the info must have an extension of .php (example: index.php not index.html).

Nobody will be able to view your PHP scripting, nor your spreadsheet data.

[anomaly24601]

vishalbiswas, mysql is a bit beyond my knowledge base, but thank you for the suggestion

mlseim, i'll send you a pm

[RDesignista]

MSLEIM is so good with PHP ideas. I had no idea you could do that. I have to keep that in mind because it could come in handy for a client. Thanks!

On the original question though, you might want to look at a bit of PHP, namely the include() function. This wouldn't be as cool as Msleim's idea, but it's easy to do and it's what I started out with. It has the same idea of html <frame>, which is the ability to make a change once and have it repeat throughout the site, except that <frame> is something that is hugely deprecated (I used frames back in 2000) and is not recommended.

So basically, your host needs to support php.

Then you make multiple files:

page1.php
page2.php
sidebar.php

You can use regular html in page1.php and page2.php. And just put an include in the sidebar area, referencing the sidebar.php.

...
<div id="sidebar">
  <?php include("sidebar.php"); ?>
</div> 
...

Then in sidebar.php, you would need your own html

<strong>Class Times</strong>
<ul>
  <li>Class 1 - 10:30pm</li>
  <li>Class 2 - 11:30pm</li>
</ul>

and then when you look up page1.php on the site, the html output will be :

<div id="sidebar">
  <ul>
    <li>Class 1 - 10:30pm</li>
    <li>Class 2 - 11:30pm</li>
  </ul>
</div>

cool, right?