Question from a newbie re frames & CSS

[Al Jones]

Situation and apologize in advance for the long description.

I have several letters (in the neighbord hood of 200) that I have
trasncribed and want to put up on the web.

The lay out as I picture it is:

Top / banner
some navigation (links / about / history / ... )
left column: letter date / title
right column: letter text (which also includes the picture of the letter)

footer: copyright / etc??

both the table of contents and the letter may exceed the users screen
length and I would like to scroll them independently. If the user selects
a different letter, put it in the right had box, but leave the toc alone
(no movement)

I can:
1) do it with frames
2) do it with tables and imbedded iframes <??>

Now come the ignorance questions:
banner consists of two pictures one align: left, the other align: right
with some text (Site title) inbetween. The left hand picture sets at the
top, the text aligns center:center (no such but I think you understand
what I mean), the right hand picture drops down about 3em and I can't seem
to get it to the top. Suggestions??

Now for the dumb question:
If I do this with frames - what are the minimum specifications that need
to be included in the html for each 'page' (toc and individual letters).

I can't point to a web site as this is still 'pie in the sky' ('let's
learn html/css by doing something realistic???)

Thanks //al (fix email to reply directly)

 

[Richard]

Situation and apologize in advance for the long description.

I have several letters (in the neighbord hood of 200) that I have
trasncribed and want to put up on the web.

For something of this magnitude, you should explore the high probability of
using either cgi (pearl) or PHP.
Learn how to handle a mysql database.

To do this with standard html coding would be a royal PITA no matter how you
laid it out.
To do it in frames, you'd need a single reference page for each letter.
As a database, all you'd do is reference a unique ID label for each letter.

I'm no expert by any means, but even at my level, I would not want to do
what you're proposing purely in html.

 

[rf]

For something of this magnitude, you should explore the high probability of
using either cgi (pearl) or PHP.

You fail totally to realise what really happens on a web server.

There are two ways of running server side processes.

One way is via CGI, Common Gateway Interface. Many things support CGI, perl
and PHP being two of them. One thing that must be pointed out is that CGI is
*NOT* equal to perl.

Another way is to directly link the process server to the web server, as a
module. PHP amongst others can do this.

I'm no expert by any means,

How true.

 

[Al Jones]

For something of this magnitude, you should explore the high probability
of
using either cgi (pearl) or PHP.
Learn how to handle a mysql database.

To do this with standard html coding would be a royal PITA no matter how
you
laid it out.
To do it in frames, you'd need a single reference page for each letter.
As a database, all you'd do is reference a unique ID label for each
letter.

I'm no expert by any means, but even at my level, I would not want to do
what you're proposing purely in html.

ya know, I really did think about that - but since this project is
strictly family related and will be put on CD for distribution to family
member I didn't think much of that idea.

I probably should have included that in my original kessage.

I do have most of the files on a friends web siote, but will need to get
her permission before I give the adress out.

Assuming that the user wants to increase / decrease the size of the letter
(screen) frames seems more reasonable to me ... is that a correct
assumption? The table sites I've seen just seem to increase the amount
of blank space surrounding the document - not to resize (display more text
of) the document itself.

Admittadly this is going to be a PITA - but it's also been an enjoyable
one.

 

[Richard]

For something of this magnitude, you should explore the high probability
of using either cgi (pearl) or PHP. Learn how to handle a mysql database.

To do this with standard html coding would be a royal PITA no matter how
you laid it out. To do it in frames, you'd need a single reference page
for each letter. As a database, all you'd do is reference a unique ID
label for each letter. I'm no expert by any means, but even at my level,
I would not want to do what you're proposing purely in html.

ya know, I really did think about that - but since this project is
strictly family related and will be put on CD for distribution to family
member I didn't think much of that idea.[/QUOTE]

I probably should have included that in my original kessage.

I do have most of the files on a friends web siote, but will need to get
her permission before I give the adress out.

Assuming that the user wants to increase / decrease the size of the letter
(screen) frames seems more reasonable to me ... is that a correct
assumption? The table sites I've seen just seem to increase the amount
of blank space surrounding the document - not to resize (display more text
of) the document itself.

Admittadly this is going to be a PITA - but it's also been an enjoyable
one.

Well in that case, go for the gusto and jazz it up any way you see fit.
Insist they use IE and put transitions in.
Try out all kinds of different popup and sliding menus too.
All kinds of things can be on a cd package that would not be suitable for
the web.

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

using either cgi (pearl) ...

So ... you have oysters up your way?

 

[Al Jones]

Well in that case, go for the gusto and jazz it up any way you see fit.
Insist they use IE and put transitions in.
Try out all kinds of different popup and sliding menus too.
All kinds of things can be on a cd package that would not be suitable for
the web.

I'd hope that that was sstrictly facetiousness ... this is an exercise to
help me learn how to use html & css.

Anyone want to respond to my original questions???