Navigation dilemma

FrontPage navigation bars and what to do?

[mikevanerp]

My site is PR5 (on index.htm) and has about 200 pages of content. It's a flat file page for which I use FrontPage (don't laugh too much, please!), and is a non-commercial hobby site in a niche area. I'm thinking of changing the navigation on my site slightly, but I'm concerned about making a mistake as I'm getting around 3000 page views served a day, and don't want to annoy/confuse my users. My site is in my profile.

I currently have two FrontPage nav bars, one in a left border, and one in the top border:
The top border nav bar displays child level pages and a parent link.
The left border nav bar displays child pages under home and always displays a home page link as well.

Essentially I want to get rid of the top navigation bar because IMO it makes the pages much more code heavy and is perhaps a little confusing and redundant. It also disturbs the layout of some pages, especially when there are a lot of articles listed in the top bar.

I plan instead to rely on the left hand navigation bar almost as it is at present, except for adding an "UP" link between "HOME" and "REVIEWS" so that users will rely on the main sub-pages such as reviews, videos, shops, etc, and the up button to go up to the main sub-page. Each of the main sub-pages has a list of items that can be used to navigate the tiered structure under it.

Do you think that this is likely to work, given that the site has a fairly flat and wide structure? Do you have an alternative suggestion, bearing in mind that I'm not likely to move away from FrontPage and its navigation bars without good reason? That's because FP does quite a lot of automated stuff in a way that saves me time.

[Marcia]

Mike, this seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle, sorry. I don't have the answer because I don't know Front Page, but I have to do some work on some pages are using Front Page borders that involve some changes to the navigation, both on the navbars, top and bottom, and the left side, which involves a graphic (on some pages multiple graphics).

I'd like to see some replies, since I have no idea what borders are.

[pageoneresults]

I've been using the program for over six years. I've never used the FP navigation features such as shared borders and the like. I started off with the FP Includes and that is what I've worked with ever since.

The FP shared borders and navigation generate way too much proprietary code. I've also seen numerous problems discussed in various FP forums all centered around FP predefined navigation schemes.

If I were you, I'd take a hard look at switching everything over to the Include method as this will produce the least amount of code that validates and will make your life much easier in the long run.

P.S. Every time I see this...

<!--msnavigation-->

I run for the hills! I've stripped away more msnavigation themes than I care to think about!

[oilman]

well - I was gonna say just do it and axe the top nav bar but it appears you already did :)

nice site btw.