Ferenc Pataki

Hi,

Thanks for you great pages. I am new to 'Web site creating'.
(I made my familiy Web pages a few years ago, but basically
I made it with Word (these days with OpenOffice) and saved
as HTML - that doesn't qualify me as Web designer :)

Now I got involved into the area, partly because of my job:
I had to reach at least basic level understanding of what
widgets are, and now - to try out what I learned - I
volunteered to help out the school where my wife teaches (a
Waldorf school, they can't afford to hire a professionals
for the job) to set up their Web pages.

I spent long evenings and nights browsing for HTML, Java
Script and CSS tutorials and guides (actually I went through
most of W3CSchool's relevant tutorials), but your site
stands out. It is clear, easy to understand and at the same
time practically useful and provides advenced techniques -
thank you very much.

And now why I write you:

We plan a simple Web site with predominantly static content.
Because of this, and to keep things simple (and because I
don't have the energy and time to learn server side stuff) I
thought of simple static HTML pages (i.e. not server
generated). (There will be a forum, but there are free
hosted forums we can use.)

The idea is that the navigation part of all pages should be
identical. And here comes the problem. Even though the
entire Web site will be static, sometimes (especially
initially) there will be new pages, sometimes I will have to
reorganize the site structure, … - I would hate to have to
do the same changes to each and every HTML file; I am sure I
would make errors. I want to have one single copy of the
navigation.

The solution I'd prefer would be to 'include' the navigation
part of the page - but as far as I understand there is no
such feature in HTML other than frames, but everything I
read says that frames are evil, so I don't want to use frames.

The only thing what I could figure out is to define the menu
in JavaScript (perhaps as an array), include the same
Javascipt file in each HTML file and then generate the
navigation part when the page loads. (Well, I found on your
site that XML data can also be loaded, but that seems to be
even more problematic.) - Am I right? Isn't there a simpler
way? How do you create the same navigation pane on many of
your pages?

***

Another question, but also about navigation:
Even though the site won't be very extensive, it may not be
appropriate to display the entire site map all the time: I
will need pop-up menus. You show two approaches: Javascript
and CSS based ones. Do I understand right, that (even though
currently both approaches work with all important browsers)
the CSS approach is safer since it falls back to an unfolded
list in case of uncapable browser?

***

A third question: I very much like the (Moosified) elegant
clarity of the design of your pages. I thought of using your
pages as the starting point to design our template.
Ultimately I think the design would be rather different,
perhaps not even obvious for the casual obbserver. I see the
terms of usage of you Javascripts, but couldn't find
anything about design. - Do you give me the permission to
use your pages: HTML structure and CSS as template-template?
(I was looking at many free Web design templates, I even
have a demo-proto (http://web.t-online.hu/ferencpa/feszek/ 
- I was kind of fallen in love with this template) - but
unfortunately the school's logo doesn't fit to the template,
and now I think I'd prefer a simpler structure (so that
others (practically zero HTML knowledge) may also be able to
author simple pages), and also a vertical navigation schema.)

Cheers,

Ferenc

Hi Mark,

Thank you very much. I checked out the PHP approach: it
seems to be really simple, so I think I can still afford
learning that :)   Furthermore, I managed to find a free
hosting service here in Hungary that offers PHP support as well.

As for using the styles: even if I decide to use the
"Moosified style" (after asking for permission), there will
be no risk that anyone thinks it is part of your site: there
would be a logo in the header many photos throughout the
pages, navigation on the left hand side. But I am still
hesitating; I am still looking at other templates as well.

Cheers,

Ferenc