My Design Options

nike_guy_man's picture

They have: 840 posts

Joined: Sep 2000

Ok.
I'm going to, once again, re-do my site.
I get different opinions for different design options.
CSS? DHTML? Tables? SSI? Javascript?
My users mostly use IE 5.X and a few use IE 4.X. Very few use Netscape, Java games don't run well with that.
Suggestions? I've used a DHTML cascading menu, and got bad reviews on that.
Thanks for your help!

Laughing out loud

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

I think it really depends on your theme, I know its a gaming site but if you use a theme, say futuistic, then buttuns, bells and whistle would work, if you are tending to lean towards one games graphics then buttons and bells wouldnt suit.

fancy interface style set up, could be done with a HTML layout done with tables, maybe a little bit of Javascript. this way it works on all browsers the same with no compatibilty worries, or rather similar as no two are the same.

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Just use what you have to.

Javascript - OK but not too heavy.
CSS - Yes
Tables - Not really a lot of choice there.
SSI - depends
DHTML - No

But really this are just tools. You can come up with the design on a piece of paper or in an image editing program. Once you decide, the design, then figure out the details.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

nike_guy_man's picture

They have: 840 posts

Joined: Sep 2000

Ok...
Thanks for replying
I've always put my page on paper first.
The reason that never works out is I have different views than everyone else.
Anyways, about design:
I'm going to make all my pages with PHP, so they are more user-customized. I'll use SSI for some sort of navbar.
For the navbar, would you suggest a side navbar, or a top navbar??
Should I use a separate CSS file or just write it in?
What is the best tutorial for CSS out there??
Thanks!

Laughing out loud

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

The location of the navbar depends on the site and how many links that you have. As a loose general rule, I would say sites with loads of links use a side navbar. Those with few links, use a top navbar.

CSS is quite easy to learn. I think that I learned it by viewing other stylesheets. If you want, I can email you one or just look in your cache (temporary internet files) and you will see a bunch of them (they have a .css extension). Top Style Light is a pretty good program and I think that it is a free version. Their site is apparently down so I can't tell for sure.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

CSS is very easy to learn and very easy to get carried away with, becareful how you use it as it doesnt work to well on version 4 browsers, infact it does actually mess up layouts (depending on what you use), if you keep it to fonts and links etc you'll be right, dont use it on anything important or for laying out your page. using a seperate .css file is also easier, this way you only have to edit one bit if you want to change your sites look.

nike_guy_man's picture

They have: 840 posts

Joined: Sep 2000

Ok... CSS, with a side navbar (many links), PHP, SSI, and Tables.
I'm still confused about CSS... lets see if I got this
I'm looking at the CSS file in my cache for Hotmail.com

font {color:#000099}
.swnu {font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:11px;color:#ffffff;text-decoration:none}
.sb {font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:11px;color:#003366}
'
and on Hotmail.com's page, they have
<font class="swnu" color="#ffffff">
'
So CSS is like this
type {description;description2}
.b {changeddescription;changeddescription2}

and the HTML is like this:

Exchanged font or A or table or whatever for type, it was just for example.
Am I right?
This was a simple try on my part, and so I may not be right.
Thanks

Laughing out loud

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Yeah, that is the basic concept. It gets a bit more complicated than that.

Glish is a pretty good site for learning CSS also.

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

the reason they used class="swnu" and font color="#ffffff" is so it works on older browsers.

the html tags can be changed, ie font size, color, alignment, etc etc

you can also add your own items you want effected. example

font{color:#000099;} all the fonts will be 000099 (dark blue)
but say we want one line a different color, we'd use
.newfontcolor {color:#C0C0C0;}
now in the page were we want the color changed we add and this section will be light grey

newfontcolor can be any word, span is just a tag, any tag can have a class or id included in it.

also note the style sheet should included html comments after and before the style tags but before and after the tag coding, the comments hide it from the older browsers that dont except css.

use a few sites to learn as there is a varied view on css, some teach ways that shouldnt be taught as it doesnt work. but like anything more than one way to skin a cat.

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.