How to do without frames

Hello

I'm not an expert on web development, our web site is www.datafields.net

I have read your forums and i know that you guys are really oppose of using frames. I totally for not using frames,

Ok my problem is without using the frames, if i have to add a new product or service to my website i have to change top dropdown menu and i have to change every html page in my site.

Is there an easy way around it? We are developing few products and it would be a real problem if we had to change the whole site every time we want to add a new option to the drop down menu.

Any ideas suggestions are much appreciated?

Thanks N Best Regards
Sana

For the record I think frames have their uses, they're just very specific circumstances.

In your case you want to look into SSI (server side includes). It will let you put common code in one file and share it with multiple other pages.

See this post Server Side Scripting

There are many, many ways to do this.

You could use Server Side Includes to include the navigation in each file. So when you want to change the navigation, you only change one file.

Alternatively, you could do the same thing in PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, JSP... the list goes on. If you have access to any of those technologies then certainly give them a go as it will make life a lot easier when it comes to updating content.

If you don't have access to any dynamic technologies (only HTML) then there are still things you can do. Some programs (such as Dreamweaver) allow you to create a 'template' which all of your content is based off of. When you want to change the template, Dreamweaver modifies all of the files using that template for you.

Well a note on the frames... Frames have thier uses, but people have abused them so much it just isn't appealing. It's kind of like what is happening now with flash, how people are using it in places they shouldn't.

Thanks for all your help,

I'm very new to the web development, I do have access to ASP.net and Dreamweaver

I think i first try the dreamweaver template option; looks to me that's the most straight forward at the moment.

Cheers
8)