site redesign question

The great transformation.....

[Bluetuna]

ok, ok! I have been convinced to redesign a site that is currently using 4 frames to tables, maybe.....The site is a residential real estate co. and is graphically large. As of now, the top and menu frames stay the same as the main frame goes through all the changes. A real basic question, I know that when a user clicks on a link, the whole page will have to reload, or should I make the other pages layers and have them preload so when a user clicks, there is no wait? I am sure for the dial up (modem users) crew, there will be a slight loading wait. Has anyone done this transformation? Any ideas would help. Is the work worth the ease of use of a flattened site?

[tbear]

If you nearly always have the same info in some of the frames, when you put them in the same place on every page (like a header or column of a table) and pull them from the same place (as with images), then you sould find the second time they load is very fast as they'll be drawn from the cache. Try to draw the logo and any other repeated images from the same source folder so that they are seen to be the same image.
Works fine and fast for me without pre loads. I'll normally give a warning if an unavoidably large pic comes along so that the visitor knows what he's waiting for. :)
Hope that helps.
Good luck with the re-design..

[tedster]

If your second page is re-using the same heavy graphics, most users will have them in their cache so the reloading time is quick - not a worry there.

Yes, putting all your page content in divs and changing their visibility onClick would make a quick application - but it also puts everything in one big HTML document which is a disadvantage with search engines.

For one thing, even if someone does get your BIG page in their search results, when they click-through they may not see their search term -- and then you've lost them.

For another, having links between separate pages is the standard web metaphor and you get to describe the content of various pages with your link text, title attributes, etc. Each page is a separate chance to get a new visitor from the search engines.

While you might want to use this scheme in one small section of your site for ease of use (assuming you're not adding too much file size), I'd advise against it as a site-wide strategy.

[Bluetuna]

<While you might want to use this scheme in one small section of your site for ease of use (assuming you're not adding too much file size), I'd advise against it as a site-wide strategy. >

Can you expand your thougths/reasons, I am a little lost. thanks, Brett