FrontPage Web Page, Website Headers

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Brief introduction to web page layout using tables.

What's a web site header? It's what you see right above you. The part of this website that is in red ^^above^^.

Web page headers identify your site and add a consistent look and feel. They generally are on most pages and are "included" by several different methods. If your a FrontPage user adding a header is easy.

Design Time:

Just make a "header" web page (the hard part).

Once you have a page, use the insert menu and choose >Web Component >Include Content or >Insert Inline Frame.
If you are using FrontPage 2003 and you want to use the "Include Page Component for an .asp you will get an error saying it can't be done. It can be done however, just open the page in code view and insert the component manually. i.e.:

If you are familiar with >Format >Shared Borders, this is another similar option.

Frames are great except (and this is a big except) that it is hard for users to bookmark individual pages and search engines have a hard indexing the site.

Server-side include,

These are the most common ways to include content in FrontPage. The "Link Bar' component is great and easy, but it is not customizable. There are other ways to include content, JavaScript, ActiveX, XML/XSL, database content and so on.

You may think that your website is so small that you don't need to build any navigation structure...think twice!! Even if your site is just 20 pages, it can be a very tedious to update 20 pages manually every time you change or add new content. I have seen may new users get completely fustrated with there site and lose interest due to this.

My personal choice are the ones I've been using for a few years now, that is the FrontPage Include and #include file. I prefer the FrontPage Include because the links are automatically updated if I move or change a file location.

There is currently 2 main standards for a web page layout using tables.

750 pixels wide or 100% wide. If your users are on old computer or have older browsers you may want to use a 490 pixel layout.

750 pixels is a fixed size. This means you have more control over page layout.

A simple fixed layout, viewed full size in browser window:

Header 750 pixels, fixed

Nav
Fixed
at
130
pixels

No object should exceed 130 pixels.

Main content is a new
table inserted into this
cell set at 100%

If a picture(s), new table(s) or
object(s) are place here
that exceed 370 pixels, they
will make the whole overall layout grow paste the 750 pixel mark.

If you add a borders around your tables or pictures, don't forget to add these to your total.

Additional content fixed at

250 pixels

No object should exceed 250 pixels.

Footer fixed at 750 pixels

A percentage layout is a little different. The center cells are pretty much the same. The layout should still use a 750 pixels as the mark not to exceed. When using graphics to display header and footer info, they should not exceed 750 pixels in total. 1 cell is used to "stretch". You do this with a background picture that is tiled or a image that is set to width="100%". The picture below is shown as "Normal" and set to width 100%. When using a stretched image use a 1x1 pixel image, then just change the value for width to 100%. Interestingly enough, the download time is not effected!

Header 100%

Logo cell fixed

Banner cell %

cell fixed