Which program simplifies linking pages within a directory?

Have Dreamweaver, Frontpage and Wordpress. Which to use this time?

[HeyJim]

I'm a Dreamweaver hacker. I've put together 30 or 40 sites over the years but I doubt that I've come close to mastering ANY of its basics.
For instance, when I add a page of content I finish by entering a link to the new page of content in the left side navigation table, copy the left side navigation table into the clipboard, open every page on the website and paste the new table into every page. There's gotta be a better way.
Now I'm starting on a new site this week which will eventually have, oh, maybe 60 pages spread over several directories. When I add a new page of content in a directory I'm looking for the easiest/most effective means for automatically(?) adding a link to the page onto at least every other page in the directory without opening up every page and doing it manually.
Is there an easy way to do this with DW? I also have a copy of FP2000 (or 2002?). Would this be easier?
Or, although I have no experience with Wordpress I can do an automatic install on the server. Might this be the way to go? (I think the url's on WP are search engine friendly but I'll have to double check.)
I have a lot of work ahead of me and once I get the basic template in place I just want to be able to add page after page of content and have the linking structure mostly take care of itself. Any suggestions appreciated.

[vkaryl]

Um. In DW, set up the nav table as a library file (nav.lbi, f'rinstance), place the Library File indicator within each page where it belongs, then tell the program to update....

Er. Open the Help function in DW; alternatively, go to macromedia and check out their tutorials etc.

HOW long have you been using DW? And WHAT version is it?

[icedowl]

NetObjects Fusion will do just what you want automatically. It uses what is called a "master border" for all the things you want to have repeated on all of the pages, and if you use their "navigation bar" within that master border it will automatically add a button for new pages.

Personally, I don't much care for the speed of using graphical or rollover buttons so I instead create a table for navigation links with CSS rollover color changes. I place the table in the "master border" on one page, and any change that I make to it on any page is automatically done on all pages. Make sense?

I'm still learning DW so I don't know yet if it has anything that compares to a master border. I've never touched FP.

[sonjay]

Server-side includes are the best way to go on this, assuming your host supports SSIs.

Make your nav table an included file, and include it on all your pages.

Need to add a new item in the navbar? Add your new link in your included file and upload it. Presto chango, *all* your pages have the new navbar. One file, one change, one upload.

I don't know how NetObjectsFusion does what icedowl was talking about, so I can't speak to that, but SSIs are better than Dreamweaver's library items -- when you change the library item, DW automatically propagates that change through all the pages on your site, which you then have to upload. All your pages. With SSIs, you change and upload one single file.

[vkaryl]

....when you change the library item, DW automatically propagates that change through all the pages on your site, which you then have to upload. All your pages. With SSIs, you change and upload one single file.

Entirely true, Sonjay. I was simply attempting to fill him in on another area of DW, since he'd created so many sites with it already.

I don't have any personal interest in DW at all; I use it for ONE site out of many simply because some dingaling back when used it to set up the site, and no one's interested in having me redo the site "right".

SSI includes work magnitudes better (caveat: not every host allows use of them, however); so do php includes.

[HeyJim]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I decided to go with ssi and it's working well.
Is there a ssi way to include a document off of another domain? I did some research and experimentation and it doesn't look as though it's possible.

[vkaryl]

Not that I know of, though I truthfully don't know all that much about SSI, since I'm more into using php for simple includes. There MIGHT be a way to use php for that though.... and no, I'm not a php phreak either, sorry!

[corz]

php is the way to go here (at least, that's what I would do), it would be a trivial matter to setup a navbar, sidebar, whatever, and have it grab contents from the directory, and create the menu dynamically.

I don't use wysiwyg editors, so I can't comment on them (other than they produce tragic code).

Am I allowed to link to my own site here? I could point you at some source code that does the trick, food for thought.

;o)
(or

[HeyJim]

corz: I sent you a sticky for more info.