I am a pilot by trade, and a vol. fireman in my spare time. I have somehow managed to get myself into the position of building a site for our department. I have read a few books and have DMX and Fireworks MX installed. I am getting comfortable with the programs and have put together the basic framework of the site using frames. I cant seem to find a definative answer anywhere regarding the accepted standard for site construction these days. What is the best way to go about this...frames, tables or CSS. It is my intent to have a home page that includes some regularly updated info, with a permanent banner across the top and a nav bar on the left. There will be about ten links including one that will include access to a copy of our department standard operating guidelines (800 pgs). What would be your rec. for presenting this large document in a searchable format? I have acrobat reader standard and was wondering if I should use this to post the SOG's.
I am interested in any and all suggestions . If you have rec. methods other than what I have mentioned, let me know. I have the time and inclination to learn what is necessary to make this site look as prof. as possible. Thanks in advance for your consideration. Tom

Hi

There is no definitive answer to your question but these days the leaning is towards tables and CSS. In my opinion frames cause more hassle than they are worth.
As for your SOG's, PDF (Acrobat)would seem the way to go, however you would need specialist software to convert your SOG's to PDF format before publishing them on the web.

hope this helps

Dave

ASP|VBScript|IIS5.1|Access|WinXPPro & WinXPHome

I agree with Dave about PDF. Personally I love frames, but search engines don't. If you site is being created mainly or entirely for your department, then go with what works best. Try to keep the navigation frames as minimal as possible, leaving as much room as possible for content. On the other hand, if you want to be found in search engines, then do without the frames.

u know what server type your pages will be hosted on? if not ask your host.

If you have access to an ASP enabled server.i.e Windows 2003, then a simple include for your banner and nav bar in a table will be better for you to use, as it will let the old browsers see your work also.

the CSS way of doing things is neat and tidy, but there is too much consideration needed for getting it to display correctly across multi-browsers.



Regards,
Dave

UD4 | Flash 5/MX | Studio MX | SQL | Access | ASP/VBScript | XP-Pro