site layout design and templating

[aircooled57]

hi guys

in terms of web design , what is the best way of templating a site that has a consistent header and footer and logo in the corner etc but the content in between varies for example on one of my pages i have a large content box in between.

 

and on a different page i have three small divs instead of the large box .

 

would it be to save the header as an include

 

the footer as an include.

 

and then build seperate templates for different page styles and obviously call the header and footer in these templates

 

im stuck 

[rhodesa]

yeah, the simplest way is to make a header.inc.php and a footer.inc.php file. i usually start with one page, write the HTML for the entire thing, the split it into the two files leaving just the content. then, on each page, just include the header/footer files

[aircooled57]

ok  i tottaly get it , its just i was having a look at a few sites on the web and was like hmm ok ,they have the same header ,menu and footer , but the content sections are sometimes different ie , this page has got a large content box and this one a small content box and to small divs at the side.

 

but i guess if i have the header and footer in includes then i can call these files in my design and alter the content section accordingly to the page type .