Richard Jeffery on thu 24 jan 02
OK - I've set up Page Mill and had a play - reminded me why I don't use
it....
I suggest you stop the frustration of learning on your new site - put that
to one side , and try this simple exercise:
create 4 new pages and save them with simple names like navbar.html, page1,
page2, page3...
on each of these last 3, type a few words, and a number as appropriate - 1,
2 3.
close all but navbar.html
On edit menu, EDit:Frame:Split Frame Vertically.
Make sure you can see the Inspector - click in the left hand frame so it is
selected - you should see a blue border. in the Inspector, click in the
name text field and type something obvious (like navbar or menu) instead of
the daft name Adobe gives it. Do the same for the right frame - body is a
good term, but whatever you're happy with. ignore the warning messages
about broken links - you haven't made any...
on the File menu, File:Frameset:Save Frameset. Give it a name, but I
recommend you include frameset in the title to remind you. If you click in
the frames you have created, and look at the title bar of PageMaker at the
top of the screen, you'll see it will tell you the name of the actual page
you have clicked on. In my example I've just done, navbar.html is in the
left frame. You will probably have a new, unnamed page in the right frame.
Resize the frame so the left pane is about 20% of the screen. doesn't
matter, but makes it look more purposeful....
Frameset is the secret to frames - it describes the "architecture" - the
floor plan if you like, but doesn't show on the screen itself. It is just
html inside, though.
Now - type something exciting at the top of navbar.html - your left hand
frame - or rather - the page contained in the left hand frame.
don't go for war and peace - Menu would be good.
under that, in a vertical list, type 1, 2, 3.
select 1 in navbar.html - use the Edit menu - Edit:Make Link to link to your
page 1.
With the link still selected, click on the little target symbol at bottom
right - "change link target". You should see a graphic representation of
your frame layout pop up. Click on the right hand frame in this
representation - the bit we called "body" or whatever. At this point, a
grown up programme would be offering you your choice of name to use, just to
make it easy. never mind. this sets the target frame for your page 1 to
open in - otherwise it would open in the same frame as the navbar. target -
that's the key word.
do the same for pages 2 and 3.
OK - almost home. File menu - File:Save All.
if you now go into preview mode, you should be able to click on your links,
and pages 1, 2 and 3 will pop up at will, in the right hand frame....
Congratulate yourself. have a drink. be nice to the cat. don't switch
off.
One thing to think about. Close all the files. How do you get the framed
pages back? Open the Frameset. So, if you wanted this to be the first
thing a visitor sees (rather than have some "splash" page that then opens
the frameset), eventually you would rename the frameset file as index.html -
or whatever your server recommends - before you upload it. I'm assuming
here that PageMill can automatically rename links... if not, you'll just
have to remember which file contains the frameset - I think it's easier to
call it frameset while you're working - hard to forget the really obvious.
OK - open your frameset file - you will probably find that the navbar will
be there, but that there is an unnamed file in the right hand, "body" frame.
remember I said it created one. All nature abhors a vacuum, even Adobe.
And no, I don't want any of you scientists writing in to tell me about
vacuums. what are you doing reading down this far anyway?
You can either make use of this file as your home page, and rename it as you
see fit - or, if you want page 1 to be your home file, you can navigate in
preview mode with you links to get page 1 on screen in the right hand frame.
if you then File:Frameset:Save Frameset as, and use the same name so it
overwrites the existing file, close everything, then re-open your frameset,
you should find it opens up with page 1 in the right hand frame. The
frameset not only describes the layout, it also sets the first pages that
come up when the frameset opens.
Phew.
haven't written training materials that fast since I used to turn up in a
hotel at the butt end of the country at past midnight to find someone had
booked the wrong sessions....
I really hope this helps - sorry it's very scrappy. - it's not quite
midnight - an hour off, even. I would probably get back into my stride if I
waited another hour....
I'm sure you know a lot of this already - it was just easier to assume no
knowledge as a starting point.
I've just done everything as I wrote it, so it should work. If it doesn't,
offer to take a closer look still stands - as long as you haven't written 60
pages by now.
If you want to try something easier, both FrontPage and Dreamweaver do make
it easier than this, although they appear more daunting when you first look
at them - and I guess their learning curves are probably steeper.....
Good luck!
Richard
Richard Jeffery
Web Design and Photography
www.theeleventhweb.co.uk
Bournemouth UK
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Jeffery [mailto:richard.jeffery@theeleventhhour.co.uk]
Sent: 24 January 2002 20:26
To: 'Ceramic Arts Discussion List'
Subject: RE: website help
Sarah - I have, but don't use, pagemill 3.0 - will take a look and tell you
what's wrong if I can.
do you want to send me a direct email address so w can speed this up?
Frames in any other software isn't really hard, but you do need to do some
planning - I usually advise the people I train to story board it.
your best bet then is to see the frames as a container for the pages you
want to show. each frame should be named -0 something simple like body,
navbar, top - whatever works for you.
a typical set up might be a static frame on left side of screen which acts
as a border, and where you might put the links. If you have 5 pages to
show, you would have 5 links in your static border, each one telling the
browser to load the relevant page into the frame called whatever.
without checking (which I will do later), it sounds as if you might be
changing some template, rather than creating individual pages.
if you want, bundle up the pages and send them to me.....
cheers
Richard
Richard Jeffery
Web Design and Photography www.theeleventhweb.co.uk
Bournemouth UK
-----Original Message-----
From: Ceramic Arts Discussion List [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On
Behalf Of Sarah House
Sent: 24 January 2002 15:45
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: website help
I've been working on my new and improved website. I need help before I throw
the computer. Would someone who has used Adobe Page Mill PLEASE contact
me??? I'm using version 3.0. The problem is in saving the frames. Everytime
I change a page, i find that it has changed every other page to. I know
that's what great about frames, but how can you create different pages? I've
redone it a million times.
Sarah House
--
www.SKHPottery.com (the old and looking better every day site)
PO Box 84
Little Switzerland, NC 28749
828-756-1191
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