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srsedate

HTML Problem!

By srsedate, in General Off-Topic

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srsedate    118

srsedate
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I've already tried Google, Yahoo, and the sort to search for this, but it's almost impossible to find one that works for my situation.

I need an IFRAME that resizes its width based on the document it is showing.  Here's the website:

http://www.freewaves.net 

On the home page, (after the enter screen), there's a NAV bar, a side menu, and some time/date widgets on the right.  In the very middle is an IFRAME, and the menues change the document shown in the IFRAME.  I want the IFRAME to re-adjust its height accordingly to match the height of the document displayed.  Here is the current IFRAME tag associated with it:

<iframe src="homesrc.html" width="750" height="1865" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" name="homebase">Your browser does not support this page.  Please use Internet Explorer if possible.</iframe>

Anyways, I really need your help!  If at all possible, try to have a solution that doesn't involve the <head> tags, unless unavoidable.  I've had lots of problems with them.  Thanks.

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Voar Tok    4

Voar Tok
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Why are you trying to do this with the frame tags? They weren't created to make auto-expanding text boxes. It can be done, I'm sure, but you're better off using CSS instead. On top of that, frame tags should only be used when they're pretty much unavoidable. IE and Firefox don't parse them the same way, so you'll almost guarantee that half of the web-community won't be able to view your site properly.

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srsedate    118

srsedate
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    I'm not sure how to use CSS. Could you show me how or direct me to someplace where I could? If you could look at FreeWaves and look at what I am trying to do, and maybe give some advice as to how it could be done? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

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    Jasoncw    11,840

    Jasoncw
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    If I were you, I would just get rid of the vertical navigation bar, and the calendar stuff.  There's not really a point to having a calendar/clock on your site unless it marks dates on your site (for example, a calendar on a blog where the dates link to blog entries), or if it's something like Google Calendar.  You don't need the vertical navigation bar because you already have a horizontal navigation bar at the top.

    With those things out of the way, your page becomes very simple.  At the top of the page is the navigation (which you can use a "server side include" to easily make it consistent and easy to update across all pages), and beneath that, you have the content of the page, where you no longer have to think about any formatting stuff.

    I also wonder what your site is actually about.  What kind of ISP has a link to a SimCity fansite on its first page?  But what do any of those topics have to do with being an ISP, or what do they even have to do with each other?  The site feels more like a lot of keywords than it does content.  Also, the background music is unprofessional (and annoying), and "enter" pages have no purpose.  I still don't know what the site is about, but whatever it is about, it should be an underfilled niche that your team is knowledgable about.  Other than SimCity, none of those topics are underfilled.

    There are also a lot of big websites/forums about webdesign, and you should go find and join a few of those. 

    02Sxlbs.png    PATREON    •    MIPRO    •    MY BAT & TUTORIAL THREAD

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    srsedate    118

    srsedate
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    Thanks for your opinions! I am unfortunately new at advanced web design, and I would prefer to have the site layout this way. I know a vertical NAV bar is kind of dispensable when the horizontal NAV is already there, but I just started the site, and it's just now taking shape. I probably would use an SSI if I knew how! Sounds very useful...

    Anyways, the reason I wanted an IFRAME in the middle so that the files on my server are as small as possible, making room for media files, (movies, games, etc.) Plus, the page loads much faster this way.

    I've tried Google so many times, and once skipped sleep almost altogether looking for an answer! I decided to come here knowing that there'd be someone here to help. I've heard some things about DIV tags, but I'm not sure what that's all about. If I could find a way to either:

    A - Resize the IFRAME accordingly to the content displayed.

    B - Find another tag that can display a seperate web page (on the same server) that resizes accordingly.

    C - Find some other magical way of thinking.

    It's really great that you guys are here! Thanks for the ideas!

    I'm sorry you feel that way about the music.  =(

    I made the enter page simply because entering the home page directly somehow messes up the NAV bar, and have found the problem to be resolved this way.  Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have it.

    Also, it is definitely smart to build and inform on an underfilled topic, however, I figured that today's websites are definitely too complicated and hard to understand, (excluding a select few: Simtropolis, Google, Wikipedia, etc.) and I figured I would provide free content without the need to register an account on a website that has no ads, a simple interface, and almost any type of content you can think of.  I know that seems like much, but instead of wondering on why my website is the way it is, I would like to know if it can be done (the IFRAME resize thing) or any of the options I provided.  Thanks very much!

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    Jasoncw    11,840

    Jasoncw
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    If you wanted to, you could make the IFrame have a width and height of 100%.  That way it will fill up whatever extra space is there on the webpage, and will make a scrollbar on the right if there is still not enough space to display the document.  This isn't what you want, but it would be a similar effect. 

    But frames aren't good for what you want to do.  http://www.mattheerema.com/archive/exactly-why-are-frames-bad  sums up what I would have to say about them.

    Also, the filesize of your html isn't a big deal at all.  Your page is 26kb, and even ST's front page is only 58kb.

    Here are some good forums.  The first one is free, and the second one isn't, but you can still browse a lot of it.

    http://www.webdesignforums.net/

    http://www.webmasterworld.com/

    Edit - http://www.alistapart.com/articles/landwarinasia  kind of gets at what I was talking about before.

    02Sxlbs.png    PATREON    •    MIPRO    •    MY BAT & TUTORIAL THREAD

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    srsedate    118

    srsedate
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    I've already paid for the website and everything for these reasons alone. It's great that you are sharing your opinion, but I don't think it matters on whether or not my website is needed.

    I've searched WebDesignForums and found lots, but nothing that worked. I 'borrowed' the scripts from plenty of forums there, but the outcome was either:

    A - IFRAME disappears altogether.

    B - IFRAME has a height of 30 or lower.

    C - Nothing happens.

    D - Page loads, but with a scipt error, and one of the choices above.

    Also, I browsed WebMasterWorld until it booted me for not registering.

    What's this CSS everyone keeps talking about? Also, thanks for your dedication to this topic!

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    Jasoncw    11,840

    Jasoncw
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    For example, instead of having a font tag, with color, size, and typeface set in each tag, you have one property that says class="disco".  Then you have an external file that defines what properties "disco" has.  You include class="whatever" for anything you want.  You can also redefine properties for individual tags themselves.  For example, you can set it up so that p will not only separate paragraphs, but will also indent the first line.  So this way you have an "external css" (this is what you'll want to search google for), that is independent from the individual pages.  So you can change the formatting of whatever you want throughout the entire site by only editing one file (say, if you think all the headers should be a little bigger, and a slightly different color).

    Then if you use the SSI I talked about before, then you have all of the navigation type stuff isolated on an independent file as well, and you can change the entire site's navigation by only editing one file.

    This leaves each individual page being more or less the content itself, which from my understanding is your goal.  You want the page to act and scroll like a normal page, while having the content isolated from the navigation.

    Also, learn about "div"s, you'll want to use these to organize your page instead of tables.

    02Sxlbs.png    PATREON    •    MIPRO    •    MY BAT & TUTORIAL THREAD

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    srsedate    118

    srsedate
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    Thanks! I will definitely learn about DIVs as soon as possible. School has started, so I may not have as much time as I'd like. How would I make a CSS file, and how would I use the "class" option? (Would I define "class" in every tag? The tag?

    <a name="anchor" class="disco" href="#">quote>
    ?)

    An SSI sounds like a really great idea! How would I go about doing this?

    Thank you guys very much for your support!

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    Jasoncw    11,840

    Jasoncw
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    http://www.htmlgoodies.com/ has a lot of tutorials about both ssi and css, divs and more. There's a lot of tutorials though some are outdated. You can search google and come up with a million tutorials on any subject.

    02Sxlbs.png    PATREON    •    MIPRO    •    MY BAT & TUTORIAL THREAD

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    srsedate    118

    srsedate
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    Ok, thanks! I'm still learning PHP via www.php.net, and I'm learning a lot about databases and SQL etc. It's very confusing, but I'm sure I'll get it soon.

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