hey everyone, I've been researching and putting together the content for my new site, and I'm ready to start design. The site will have about 5 main categories (pages) and 5 or 6 sub categories within each main category. So 25-30 pages of content in total. I've learned from past sites, that I'm never happy with the design in the end..and there is something I'd like to change.. for example, I may want to change my ad placement. What can I do so that I dont have to change the add placement on all 30 pages. Is that what CMS does? .. or should I be using something like Joomla? thanks for any advice.
No, not CMS, CSS. (A CMS is a Content Management Service.) What you want to do is use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). That is exactly what CSS is for... so you don't have to recode your entire site when you want to change the layout.
You can use php includeds. this will give you an index.php and you can set {right ad} etc and that would change sitewide, If you need a simple php frame let me know, I will send you one for free
i think the best solution for ya is either PHP or ASP, if you want to change the design you might want to change the structure of the site also and that's where neither CMS nor CSS can help you I had the same problem with designs, I never liked my sites. The best workout for was creating simple designs like www.hay.am/links now I started to like what I have. Its simple and easy navigateable
You definitely have to use PHP for designing your web-site in the future. If you are unexperienced with that or don't have enough time you can use a CMS like JOOMLA
I disagree, CSS CAN help to change the layout sitewide. It's tables that prevent doing sitewide changes, CSS allows it, if you create the layout using CSS in the beginning.
dude, from his post I see that he doesn't know any of them, so if he is gonna go that, he'd better start using a programming language and not the styling