How do I create some HTML help pages, with the same content at the top and bottom, without php or ASP etc ?

Question

I want to create some html help pages, separate html pages.

However, I want to have the same content on the top and bottom of the pages.

In the past I've used PHP or ASP, with header and footer files. I've then had to do view source and save these pages to get what I want.

I just wondered if there an easiest way to do this ?

EDIT: The pages are for use with software using a web object not a normal browser. So there won't be a web server

Answer 1

If your web server supports it, you could do server side includes

Answer 2

You could use frames, but it's not necessarily advisable (for one, it breaks navigation).

You could use XML files with an XSLT stylesheet to turn them into HTML documents that share similar elements.

You could use PHP or another server-side language to generate the pages, and then use a recursive download tool (such as wget) to turn them into HTML.

EDIT: you're basically asking whether the "standard-ish" subset of HTML supported by your component of choice provides a way of including data from a common file, just so you won't have to include the data in every HTML document.

The answer hovers somewhere between "no way" and "maybe your component has a few tricks to do that".

The sane thing to do here would be to have a tool generate the HTML documents from a common template. Could be XML + XSLT, PHP/ASP/whatever, or a fully-fledged CMS (this actually helps let non-technical users write the document contents).

Answer 3

It's awful, but you could include a JS file that uses a bunch of document.write("...") to include common elements. Not SEO friendly.