• Registered: 2009-06-30
  • Posts: 33

Topic: Should I redo my website

I've been reading Stefan Mischook's great tutorials on CSS basics and I have some fundamental questios which I'm pretty sure you guys will be able to help me with.

I have a website that I helped create about 4 or 5 years ago and I was 'informed to avoid CSS because it wasn't totally compatible with all browsers.

Now it appears that CSS is the way to do things and I am researching CSS and the best way to make my website accessible to all users (we provide accommodation for everyone but we specialise in a people with disabilities). As such I want my website to be accessible too .

I'd like to keep the general format of my site and as such I intend to use divs to create a top div and a left div to store the header and navigation, and then put the content in a central div. 

One of my question is, will I be able to keep the navigation buttons/images that I use, which I'm pretty happy with, in the CSS file, and then just link each different page to the top and left margins (which will be the same for every page - though some may just have the top navigation rather than both).  The things I've read so far only relate to format stored on a CSS file, which results in each page of a website having to have HTML code for the functions of navigation. It would seem sensible to have to only write the navigation and menu code once and then link to it, rather than just have the formats, but I feel I am over simplifying this.

The tutorials I have read mention rollover text and images but I want to know if I will be able to use my functional buttons or will I just have to put the rollover images of the buttons in the CSS file and then add the hypêrlinked text to each webpage. This would mean that if for example I renamed a button from 'Offers' to 'Special Offers' I would still have to edit each page of my website rather than just one centralised page which to me seems the whole raison d'etre of CSS's. 

My webpage is www.hamberie.com

I am the maintenance guy, plumber, electrician and gardener as well as marketing and IT 'expert' so I am spread a little thin, but I really just want to know if I re-do the website based on CSS, will I be able to maintain the 'look' of the site as it is, but gain lots of functionality from my point of view? Or will it be wasted time?

Sorry that went on a bit.

Basic questions:

Should I redesign my website to make it easier and more accessible to people with disabilities?

Am I right in thinking that CSS is the best way forward and is part of the agreed standards for websites now?

Can I only put format in the CSS page or can I add other elements like navigation.

If not, is there a way to do this?

All and any comments greatly appreciated.

  • Registered: 2009-01-13
  • Posts: 486

Re: Should I redo my website

<li>
            <p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><font face="Arial" size="2">
            <a href="goulet.htm" style="text-decoration: none">
            <font color="#008000">Gite Goulet</font></a>, is a beautiful first 
            floor 2 twin bedroomed gite. </font></p></li>

Using Microsoft Word for a text editor? It adds non-standard code. All of the formatting could be in a class and in the CSS file for the site. That would be the best method to use for the site.
The design/layout you currently have can be re-done to use CSS easily enough. I like the clean simplicity of the page.

  • Registered: 2009-06-30
  • Posts: 33

Re: Should I redo my website

We originally wrote this using HTML Beauty, as my partner wrote it from code. As it developed we moved onto Microsoft FrontPage, because I wasn't competent enough with  just code so I needed a WYSIWYG view.

Is there anything out there I could use other than FrontPage? What's the best free HTML editor that I could use to redo the site using CSS? I don't really have a budget to buy new software, and as I am only doing one website it might not be worth it.

Probably just about confident enough to redo it in code now, but the questions is will it be worth the effort?

  • Gender: Male
  • From: Salisbury UK
  • Registered: 2008-12-20
  • Posts: 1,231

Re: Should I redo my website

You can repeat sections of code for header, logo, menu, footer, etc. by inserting them in "include" files, one for each situation, then you only have to edit one file for each situation in future.

You delete the code from every main file, just a few lines applicable to each item, and put in separate files with .inc or .txt extension; no doctype, html, head or body tags.

In the spaces left in every main file you put PHP code like <?php include ("header.inc"); ?> and this gets replaced by the include file code by the hosting service just before a page is downloaded. Every main page then needs .php extension instead of .html.

See killersites PHP tutorials http://www.killerphp.com/videos/ PHP includes.

Can I only put format in the CSS page or can I add other elements like navigation.

Css files with .css extension can only have styles like margins, background-images, sizes, colors, etc but not html markup code or normal images.

  • Registered: 2009-06-30
  • Posts: 33

Re: Should I redo my website

jlhaslip & Wickham
Very much appreciated.
I'll get onto those vids.
Thanks for taking the time.