Ho do I decide if I should use a form to space out my page or a frame? Ive looked up both but Im not quite sure which way to go about it!

My website is HTML based but the newer pages also contain php. Basically, I want to put a block of links on the left side but keep them seperate from the rest of the page!

I think im meant to use forms, but do i start by defining the form? How do I specify which form Im working with?

Thanks

This post has been edited by Aequitas619: Dec 8 2006, 10:29 AM

Actually, Aequitas, I don't even think you can use forms in this situation. Well, it might be possible, though it'd be way too complicated. Perhaps you meant tables?


Anyway, what you're trying to accomplish here is commonly called a layout scheme, i.e. you're tackling the presentation of your Web-page. Lately, the recommended action is to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) whenever you're dealing with the presentation of your Website. It's almost standardized, straight-forward, and actually easier all-around.


Using frames has long been frowned upon, since it causes too many problems, both with visibility and Search Engine indexing. And using tables is complicated and its rendering may very well vary on different browsers. Your safest bid is to use CSS and the <div> tag.


If you hadn't heard of this method before, there's no need to worry. It doesn't take a lot to learn, and once you understand it, you'll find that it makes things so much easier. Here's a good introduction that would explain it all, step-by-step:

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/Web-Style-S...ayout-with-CSS/


Give this short tutorial a shot. And if, after reading it, you still have questions, feel welcome to post again. This simple method has been a life-saver for me for so long, and I'd love for others to benefit from it .



Cheers.

This post has been edited by TaMeR: Dec 8 2006, 08:13 PM

Yeah, try to avoid frames whenever possible and in addition, make sure that using the div as you were recommended would work the same on all the browsers, at least major browsers, because sometimes you can get unexpected results by using divs for your layout scheme.

I still usually prefer to use tables, call me old, but at least it is supported on more browsers and works the way I want, but of course, less and less people still is using older browsers and thats good!

But the idea to use forms, I think he/she/it doesn't know what is a form tag and all the input stuff, but I also think that, it was a misunderstanding with tables.

This post has been edited by Quatrux: Dec 8 2006, 03:06 PM

It depends... What do you want in your webpage?
Frames- Recomended when you are using the same content over and over again (example: user links and copyright). Also usefull if you would like to navigate to anouther page or if you want some content to stay on the "top" of the page. To do this simply add to your <frameset> tag. Many more advanced pages use frames
Forms- aka tables are good if you change your likes for every page, if you want a hit counter on each page and if you want to make it easy for someone to add a bookmark directly to a page on your site. If you use tables hoever you may have to edit multiple things for each page (example: Table row or col) This can be hard if your pages have lots of content.
I strongly suggest Frames for longer pages but for small personal websites Forms (table) will work fine I hope this helps. Also if you want to switch from frames to no frames fast there is a code for that. Personal Message me if you want it.
Thanks For Reading,
Sparkx
Sorry for typing errors:(

I'd reccomend using div's for all of the above reasons.
I would also consider that the 'list' of links should be an 'unordered list' using the <ul> tags or the <dl> tags. I mean, after all, they are 'lists'.
Php includes could be used to define the 'div' to 'include' on every page.
Check out the Tutorial section for a Topic on the use of Includes in php.

Thanks for all the feedback! Im going through the tutorial on css. Im also learning PHP. I will do more reading and see how its gonna work out!

Thanks again for your help!

Good Link there From TamEr..I have used these articles also, I find them some of the best tuturials on many different languages..
Aequitas if your learning about PHP I would suggest using the devarticles.com tutorials for help on PHP also.


Good Luck!

Markyl;)

The style sheets were perfect, its exactly what I was looking for and it works perfect on my webpage!

Thanks again!

And i'm busy checking out the devarticles.com tutorials on PHP! Every bit helps! Thanks!

If you're learning PHP, I would go to http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/627 it's where I started off, and now I'm making my own software (not telling anyone what it is until I have done enough of it).

I think you're best of learning more about XHTML and CSS and the standards before setting foot into PHP.

I think frames are a sexy way to make your website work "correctly". I think it makes it better organized, but you do risk your page ranking. Search Engines don't look at frames, so your "index" files would have to have a bunch of meta-tags. This is not a sexy way to appeal to search engines, but if you really don't care about search engines, you are good to use frames. If you care about search engine page rankings, I would go with tables and iFrames, and have the iFrames dynamically updated each time a page is changed (navigation in the iFrame running php code). This way you can have pieces of your site that effect this iFrame differently depending on where you are in your site heirarchy. This helps the user know where he/she is on your site without you having to hardcode as much. This is easier to adapt than making your entire site run php.