PAGE CREATION TECHNIQUES FOR A WEB SITE CONSISTENCY

There are four major techniques that you can use to create other pages from an initial page (i.e., index.html) or template.. They are in the order of difficulty:

1. File > Save As... – You can save your starting page for all of the other pages. While easy to do, the problem arises when you have to make a change in a common area (header, footer or sidebar) on one page, you will have to make the change MANUALLY on ALL other pages.
2. Create a Template – better then File > Save As... because once you make a change to a common area in the template, it will cascade to ALL of the other pages AUTOMATICALLY.  However, the problem arises because you have to upload ALL of the pages that got affected by the template.
3. Use Server Side Include – Server-Side Include (SSI) is better to use than a template because you only have to make the change to ONE file that affects all of the common areas on ALL pages. Hence, you only have to upload one page instead of many as would be the case when using a template.
4. Use Server Side Technology (i.e., ColdFusion, ASP, JSP, or PHP) – You don't create pages.  Instead you use server side templates (not to be confused with regular templates) that can DYNAMICALLY create ALL of the pages on your web site AUTOMATICALLY from a database or XML file.

Just like there are different types of "body of water" (i.e., pond, stream, lake, river, sea and ocean) from small to large, there are different types of tools/techniques that you can used to create a web sites (from beginner to more advanced techniques/tools by levels):

Beginner Level:

1. File > Save As...
2. Template

Intermediate Level:

1. Server Side Include (SSI)
2. Spry-based web site (using XML file or a file with a table in it)

Advanced Level:

1. Adobe Contribute or Adobe Business Catalyze
2. Content Management System (CMS) (i.e., WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.)

Expert Level:

1. Server-Side Technology (ASP(.NET), JSP, PHP or Coldfusion)
2. Flash/Flex web site