Hi,

new here, and didn't code for a while, actively (back then frames where still standard and I was quite a bit younger ) - been switching to .css now that I have some coding projects again.

I am currently working on a little something for a university assignment (utterly not web design related ... am studying Outdoor & Environmental Education) - it's not even worth a lot of credits, but I want to do it nicely. I wonder if what I am trying to do is possible at all with a CSS layout, however - in any reasonable time frame. ... that is I want to be able to start adding content by tomorrow, if possible.

Here's the basic layout:
http://www.student.ljmu.ac.uk/eclchaeb/rocks/rocksv2

As I only have 750 words for a very complex topic I wanted to expand the text by additional small clickable explanations within it ... that works, obviously (and I am allowed to go up to an infinite wordcount if the main text without opened explanations doesn't exceed the 750 words.

However ... some things just will need more detail to explain - diagrams and the like. That's what I had planned to use the space on the right for. The one with "lala" in, right now. The most beautiful solution would be to load content from a different html source (to not clutter up the main html file too much) into that space when people click a link, of course, but I doubt that's possible?

http://www.student.ljmu.ac.uk/eclchaeb/rocks/rocksv3/
A not quite as elegant alternative would be to have all the divs inside the text and hiding/showing them on a click. However that'd need some expanding of the javascript I have and I am not that great at coding jscript, as is obvious from that rocksv3 example. Currently it just simply hides/shows the div it is assigned to. I guess it'd need a second variable to feed it all the divs it should change to display: none before displaying the new one.

function showhide(divId) {
  var div = document.getElementById(divId);
  div.style.display = (div.style.display=="block" ? "none" : "block");
}

The last alternative is, of course, to scrap the whole idea of displaying the more detailed explanations on the right and stick with the "expand text", even if that will push it apart a lot. I am not quite ready to give up yet, however.

Thanks for any answer - or just reading at all,
-Mnemon

The most beautiful solution would be to load content from a different html source (to not clutter up the main html file too much) into that space when people click a link, of course, but I doubt that's possible?

Actually, it is, and can be done without frames.
http://www.aplus.co.yu/web-dev/inser...her-html-page/

A not quite as elegant alternative would be to have all the divs inside the text and hiding/showing them on a click.

Also possible with a bit of Ajax.
http://jquery.com/demo/thickbox/

ThickBox could work for your first problem too.
http://ajaxian.com/archives/thickbox...-with-any-html

Thanks a lot for the answer.

Thought the first solution was a little too clumsy, and the thickbox seemed a little like overkill (and slow) ... but it made me dig on and search. Found a solution on dynamicdrive, in then end:
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamici...jaxcontent.htm

http://www.student.ljmu.ac.uk/eclchaeb/rocks/rocksv4/

Now I have a bit more then a week to add content and do some small design fixes

Thanks again.

-Mnemon

Be careful with this, Mnemon. Not everyone has Javascript enabled, and when you're dealing with institutes of higher learning, the so-called "educated" types will often disable JS in their newest version of Firefox (again, to show how smart they are...it's amazing how a web browser has slowly become an intellectual status symbol) and thereby screw up whatever you've built.

Make sure you have a non-JS alternative.

Yes, I know.

To be honest if this would be a big public webpage I'd make sure to keep JScript to a minimum. I do know that the prof using this is an Internet Explorer user and has JScript enabled, so I am fine on that end, for now. Outdoor Ed instructors are probably not your run of the mill academic type, luckily .

Thanks for the reminder, though, quite appreciated. If I have some time left before the deadline I might add some alternatives to display all the content without jscript, but it's not a must right now.

Cheers,
-Mnemon

Well at least seem to you know your target audience. That's more than 99.9% of designers off the top. Good on ya.

Probably right about the Outdoor Ed instructors (is that like an outdoor version of Physical Education?)

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Probably right about the Outdoor Ed instructors (is that like an outdoor version of Physical Education?)

Depends which way you go. The Idea in general is to take people out and teach them about the world around them in that environment ... if that is adventure education or more traditional stuff like teaching geology/history/literature somewhere outside the class room is open.

Involves a lot of rock climbing and white water kayaking - probably one of the few degree programs that force one to sign a paper during registration to make sure that one (or one's family) won't hold the university responsible if one gets injured or dies during one of the lectures .

-Mnemon

If I have some time left before the deadline I might add some alternatives to display all the content without jscript

The simple way to acomplish this (no extra work involved), is to have all the content rendered visible initially. Then have a script after </body> that hides all the elements as needed.