|  | Posted by dorayme on 07/13/71 11:29 
> From: Mark Parnell <webmaster@clarkecomputers.com.au>>
 > In our last episode, Tony Vella <tony.vella@nogo.rogers.com> pronounced
 > to alt.html:
 >
 >> Let's say we have a table with three columns: a, b and c.
 >> In column 'a' there is a list of countries in alpha order.  Each
 >> country-name in column 'a' is a link.
 >> When I click a country-link in column 'a', I want to see in column 'b' a
 >> list of years in which that particular country issued stamps.  Each year in
 >> column 'b' is a link.
 >> When I click a year-link in column 'b' I want to see in column 'c' pictures
 >> of the stamps issued by that particular country in that particular year.
 >
 > Why? Why not just display it all in the first place? Split the table up
 > onto multiple pages if necessary (e.g. by first letter of country name).
 >
 > If you wanted to, you could then hide the second and third columns with
 > Javascript and then use Javascript to display them when you click on the
 > country etc., as described above.
 >
 > It would also be possible to do much the same using a server-side
 > script, though that means reloading the entire page each time.
 >
 > Either way would be preferable to frames. :-)
 
 Perhaps...
 
 If you did use frames, it would be quite a nice use of them but
 you would still need to put in a lot of targeted links and make
 a lot of different html pages to fill the frames.
 
 If you don't want to use frames nor js or server-side anything,
 you could do this simple, easy but slightly tedious and dumb but
 very effective thing:
 
 Count the number of possible different combinations that can be
 obtained: a page with just the countries in col a is one, a page
 with all the same in a, but years of one choice of one country
 in b is two, a page with the stamps of one year of one country
 in c is another. If the number is not too great, you can make an
 html page for each without frames and the site will work fine.
 
 Or, really, and better, rethink the design as Mark is partly
 suggesting. What about a page with the countries only as a home
 page or index page. A click goes to the years with a reminder of
 the country concerned and the stamps for the earliest year(s) to
 give a nice idea straight away of the format to the viewer, he
 or she can pick a different year from the list that would be
 there, you could even have buttons or arrows to move through
 year by year... as is quite common all over the web for such
 navigation... This way you have just an index page and a set of
 other pages that get down to business straight away.
 
 Yes, this is a slightly different concept to your table idea.
 You might also this way, dispense with tables altogether. I am
 not saying this /should/ be your aim, but it could be a bonus in
 the scheme I outline. It will aid you in separating style from
 content and generally help our church here grow its membership
 :)
 
 dorayme
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