There are several
components on every page:
- header
- header menu
- left menu
- content window
- background
- bottom menu
- page footer
- font group
But the single most
important component is the main page table that everything is in. This
main page table is 600 pixels wide and centered on the page. One thing to
keep in mind is that this template was designed as an informational web
site, not an e-commerce catalog or a all-in-one web portal like Yahoo.
Most of the content is driven by text, therefore.
So, although many
monitors today can be nearly twice as wide as 600 pixels, no one really
wants to read text across the entire width of a
1024 pixel wide page or even an 800 pixel wide
page for that matter. In fact, even 600 pixel widths are difficult to
deal with when text runs from edge to edge. That is why the main content
window is 470 pixels wide. There is also the issue that many users today
still have the old 640X480 standard for viewing. Many designers today
disregard this faction but Whittier cannot afford to since initial access
to its web site may be from a public school computer lab that may not have
the latest from Dell.
Below is a rendering of
the main page table with its basic width dimensions:
600 pixels wide, 0
cell spacing, 0 cell padding, centered
|
Header menu
page include (header2.htm) 600
pixels |
Left menu
page include
(menu.htm)
130 pixels |
MAIN CONTENT WINDOW
470 pixels
usually includes
a "nested" table inside it with a cell padding of 7 pixels and width
of either 450 or 460 pixels right justified. |
|
Bottom menu
page include (bottom_menu.htm)
600 pixels |
|
Footer page
include (footer.htm) 600 pixels |
You'll notice that some
of the cell items are "page include" material. These are common files kept
in the "include" folders that make it a very simple and routine matter to
update the included content on every page in the web site. The spec table
above has links to the actual included pages for this page, so you can see
what they look like by themselves.
This "included page"
feature is some magic that FrontPage works. It inserts code that tells the
web server to include the content on the included pages where they belong
on the page. It makes pages download faster since the user keeps the
included content "in cache" on their computers so when you click on a new
page, it only loads the content unique to that page.
Further discussion of the
specifications of the included pages is available off the left menu at the
top of this page. |
