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I know i sound totally confused...well i am .please tell me how do i go abt structuring my page well so that the layout doesnt get totally shaken up!
Microsoft front-page is really a bad consumer application. It has never been be very wwwc compliant. wwwc is standard programming guidelines for HTML, etc. Browsers read this code the same way. So if you got bad or none wwwc compliant code, you have bad layouts browser to brower. Secondly the application is clumsy and not very robust for pro web development. If you are going to use a WYSIWYG HTML layout ap. Then look into Macromedia Dreamweaver or Adobe Golive.
These are by far are no sub for hand coding, but are more user friendly and wwwc compliant. All in all, you will have a better experience after reviewing a basic HTML coding tutorial. You dont have to be fluent in HTML. But its a good idea to have a basic understand of what your building in front-page, it will allow you to see what problems are and tweak and control your layouts better.
hope that helps
(If you read the arguments carefully, you can pick up some really good hints about them all! ;) )
Frontpage is bad bad bad.
Only if the person using it is bad bad bad or inexperienced inexperienced inexperienced.
I am sorta new around here so I don't want to step out of line, but this forum is for those using WYSIWYG editors is it not? It just seems strange to me, give that it is so, that rather than trying to answer the question, the editor is rubbished.
I rather like FP as a tool - one of several, no one tool is the answer to everything - and use it regularly to create and maintain fully compliant sites.
To the original question:
however if i want my page to have 3 major columns, (the structure requires me to create the content in 3 major sections....how do i do that?) Can i create 3 adjacent tables and then keep inserting more tables in it?)
As awildman suggests, it might be an idea to investigate using CSS for your layout. But assuming you wish to use tables, what you want is entirely possible.
Briefly, to get three columns and have good control over each you need to do the following:
1. Create a 3 cell wide table.
Mess with the table properties to give you what you want with these, first thing generally would be to set vertical alignment to 'top', to prevent the content of one cell disappearing downwards as you add another.
2. Into any cells you like you can add a second, nested, table. For example in the center cell you might set the horizontal alignment to center, then add a table 90% wide, which would give you a content area pulled back a bit from the right and left cells of your main table.
A few things to watch for.
1. Get into the habit before inserting a table (especially a nested table) of hitting return, then backspace. That way you leave some space below the table in which you can work easily. You can always lose it later.
2. Be vry conscious of your math. All cell widths must add up to the table width and so on. NEVER drag cell or table borders - it plays havoc with your table and cell widths/heights.
There is no table layout that cannot easily be accomplished using FP. Most of the time when people have problems it is not FP that is causing them, it is a lack of understanding of how HTML tables work (they are NOT the same as a table in, say, MS Word) and/or a lack of proper planning of the layout. The problems would arise no matter what editor they were using, and probably the very same problems.
I get a little weary hearing about how so many bad websites are made with FP. They are of course, but that does not mean that FP makes bad websites. People make bad websites. They make them with ease in every WYSIWYG editor in existance, indeed they make them in Notepad.
Besides what abbeyvet has said, also check the code! Make sure you understand what is going on, then when things get a little out of whack, you can fix them up in the code:)
For what you want to do though, dreamweaver could whip it togeather in no time using layers;)
Dreamweaver->help->layers
Good luck
You have just been educated by The Master herself.
