Design ideas for a website with php support

[Anon]

I am planning to build a website from the groud up using PHP and some SQL based database.

My question has to do with architecting the approach on how to put webpages together. Need expert advise from folks with lots of web building know how.

For example:
I will have TOP bar with logos and may be adds, possibly some menu choices.
On the left of each page menu choices ( static ). The remaining part of the page filled with content in single column multi-row tables. Each row will have a link to the full document.

How do I bring the left menu and top bar together with the body of the page?
The body of the page will be dynamic from the database and filesystem

Any adivice will be appriciated.

Thanks
Roman

[Anon]

Regardless of the details, you need to put the implemention into a
separate file so you can say:

<?php
include('hdr.php'); // includes functions header(), footer(),
// and anything else needed by most pages

header('Title', etc...);

// page content goes here

footer();
?>

One easy way to do this is to make a table to contain it all.
header() then contains:

&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;&nbsp;<table>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<tr>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<td>top bar stuff</td>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</tr>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<tr>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<td width=???>Left side menu</td>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<td width=???>

and footer() closes it up:

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</tr>
&nbsp;&nbsp;</table>

[Anon]

I hate to discourage you, but your own benchmarks would
be the most useful test.