First, and foremost, hello everyone. I have been lurking around here for a few weeks and you guys have some great information.

Second, I apologize for posting this in the wrong forum, I do not know where it should go. I am very new to creating, and maintaining a website (notice the stress on very).

Now, onto my question:
My question deals with the layout of my website. I am frequently changing/adding new menu links. When I change one menu link, I have to change it on every single page. This is due to the fact that my menu is -- and my whole layout, for that matter -- is on each individual page. I do not know if this is the proper way to maintain a layout, but this is the path that I have driven down.

I would like to cut my production time in half by using a program (or a html code?) that allows me to make one change to the layout, and it applies that change to every page on my site for me.

Can anyone point me in the right direction of material I need, what I need to do, and what I should learn?

I appreciate the help, and if I wasn't clear enough on what I am looking for, just let me know.

-- idunno

You can use Server Side Include (SSI) method. You can learn it easily on http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/ssiprimer.shtml

Or you can use PHP includes.

PHP Code:

<?
require ("header.php");
?>

<?
require ("content.html");
?>

<?
require ("footer.php");
?>

Where header.php is your menu; content.html, content; footer.php, footer. Be sure to name each page with a .php extension or you could use a code that will have your server parse .html and .htm files as PHP.

Originally Posted by dannybedor

You can use Server Side Include (SSI) method. You can learn it easily on http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/ssiprimer.shtml

Thanks danny! That was much easier than I thought it was going to be.

Don't forget to rename pages with a .shtml extension, or it most likely won't work.

Originally Posted by webfreak

Don't forget to rename pages with a .shtml extension, or it most likely won't work.

or have your host configure IIS to run the ssi dll file for htm html pages ...

I'd doubt they'd configure it that way, as it take a server process each time a page is parsed as SHTML.