How to use includes and templates!

[Soulistic]

Hello...

I have a very basic question, yet, for some reason, I can not find an answer. The question is:

How do you dynamically display pages in php. For example, for the website I'm creating, I have a template file, which uses a header, a footer, and a javascript side menu bar. Now, there is also an area for my content. What I want to know is how to display the content area of the website without having to display the header, footer, and sidebar on every content page, or using includes on everypage?

Is there a way to name the the content area and display the relevant pages?

If there is still a misunderstanding of what I'm trying to accomplish, please let me know.

[bastien]

is to have the header footer and menu in a common.php file with the various elements as functions...then for each page i include the common.php file and can call the elements as needed....the rest of the page is that pages content..

<?
require("common.php");
header();
menu();

// main content of page

footer();

?>

hth