Frames with rounded edges?

[alexondrums]

I’m creating a simple static website, no server side scripting/databases/php/asp etc here, just plain boring html pages, but I need some help..

Background:

Many years ago I used to design web sites with a header frame, containing the website title/logo and menu, or sometimes an additional frame to the left containing the menu. This was great because it meant that I could update the content without whilst leaving the menu intact – it also meant the menu/logo could be updated just the once and would be displayed alike on every page.

This method seems very primitive these days, and I’ve been left behind with current web development.

I’ve recently learnt a new more graphical way of designing web sites, where the page is designed and drawn in Photoshop.

Areas are then sliced up into images, and any area that needs to contain html/code is set to no_image. Once exported as HTML, this can then be opened up in Dreamweaver for editing/adding content.

It’s a very quick, easy and nice looking way of doing things, as you have no limits to what the page looks like.

I am running in to a few problems though. Firstly, due to the way this site is designed every page contains the menu/header, and therefore links need to be edited on every instance of a page.

One way of overcoming this is to use frames, but this won’t work for me due to the way I have designed the site.

If you have a look at the attached picture (showing a basic layout of the site) you’ll notice that the rounded edge/border won’t allow for a frame to exist – or least I don’t know how to make it happen if it does. As far as I know frames can only be defined with right angles between them.

The next thing I thought of doing was maybe using a javascript menu in place of the ‘image’/hotspot links currently being used. I can probably locate a good script to use, but not sure about customising it to fit the look of the site – I would like to use stylised text with a textured background, rather then the more common system font/plain background.

So given all this, please could someone make suggestions on how I can achieve this?

[Jaxo]

Hi alexondrums,

There is another option to use instead of frames. Server Side Includes (SSI). The link below to Htmlite has a easy to understand tutorial on how to take advantage of this. This is something that the server must support, but the tutorial has an easy way of testing your host for SSI.

Basically, it allows you to call a file into your html before the browser translates it. Your able to update that file which then can be called by any page you want. Tutorial explains it much better.

HTMlite

Of course a search in google will give you more then you would ever want to know about SSI.

Hope this helps! Let us know how it goes if you use it.