Web Design All-in-One for Dummies®

Chapter 16. Building Web Sites

In This Chapter

• Understanding the benefits of using templates

• Creating and using templates

• Working with Server-Side Includes

• Understanding site-root and document relative paths

• Comparing templates and SSIs

At this stage, you've probably already designed your mock-up for the site, optimized all the graphics, and chosen how to lay out your pages using layers and tables, and you have a basic understanding about how to style the content with CSS. The next step you take in building your Web site is to create a master page from which you generate all the other pages on the site. Though each page will have different content, the general layout for every page will likely be the same, with the logo, navigation, and other elements in the same location throughout the site. While it really doesn't matter which page you decide to use to build the site's master page, the home page is usually a good choice, unless for some reason it's drastically different in look and layout from the rest of the site.

Saving time, eliminating busywork, and leveraging browser (and ISP) caching to improve the speed of your site are three of the main reasons why you use a master page to build your site. A fourth reason has to do with managing future site updates after your site is finished. In particular, you have two site-construction solutions for the nondynamic Web site that work beautifully: templates and Server-Side Includes, or simply SSIs. These tools, whether used singly or in conjunction ...