I NEED template mod HELP *master plan *possible issues

[mabwah]

Hi, I need help with some key questions regarding build of a fairly basic site. To be honest I am not even sure that I will have the *right* questions though proceed at this time I must. I am working to modify a template called "Holy Grail" in various forms which is provided by http://matthewjamestaylor.com

I LIKE IT! Here is what seems to me a robust & flexible template given freely by this extremely competent and kind person on his great blog. Really even if you can’t assist with this my post you still should go check out the work this guy is doing!

===The back story or what got me to this point===
Here is the overview (& I guess this was the original post) with the advantages of this approach to site building explained in the text content of the html "Perfect multi-column CSS liquid layouts -iPhone Compatible":
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-3-column.htm

Here is a tweak where our man explains another possibility with this same template using "em" to express dimensions rather than pixels or percentage "Ultimate multi-column liquid layouts (em and pixel widths)":
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/ulti … il-ems.htm

And lastly here is where the author offers a slightly different template to resolve issue of layout not displaying properly in certain browsers "The Holy Grail Liquid-Layout, No Quirks Mode":
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/ulti … il-ems.htm

I’m starting initially with the layout described & linked first on the respective posts listed above… that of the "3 Column" variety. IF you want to see the article describing each of the various takes on Holy Grail then here is an index you will find the articles listed by the various titles have used in parentheses above;) Better still here are the articles in order I have mentioned them:
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perf … id-layouts
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/ulti … xel-widths
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/holy … uirks-mode

===Questions at this time===
I can’t help but scratch my head and asks why all the various posts? Ok so it seems a chronological development & maybe these were issues the author just addressed & resolved over time so… rather than going back & consolidating into a "Greatest Hits" all-in-one article he just moved on. Makes sense. However I am wondering whether "em" expressed pages & "no quirk" pages are somehow incompatible? Also should I go with the "em" resolution?

The only other issue I am having at this time is exactly where -from a clean coding standpoint- I should snip the CSS style portion of the HTML that is presented when viewing "Page Source" of examples given? Yes I will being going the linked rather than the imbedded route fer CSS. What exactly should remain in the .HTML file & what exactly will I need in the .CSS file?

These are very early questions am having at this stage & may be they are really just doubts more than anything else. I am going to do this & make it work. I’m not a complete dolt & have a decent body of knowledge still… I can already foresee almost certain difficulties I will likely have in building a site (this or any other).

I need help and all I can promise is that I help others anywhwere I can:) Here is the short list of topics I will have questions pertaining to:
What is best in terms of how pages load optimally? Will I need some sort of server side includes for this "fairly basic site"… or not? How to build and implement an email form? I will need to put a map or link to map on the site under usual "contact us" area though probably not rocket science I may need a bit of help. I also want to put an "updateable" region on some area of the site so that the client can (is this possible), with minimal fuss & bother, go ahead and post updates or "what’s new" without using me as the webmaster every time.

You can see that these issues are mostly of the functionality/feature implementation type. I want to round out my skill set and have been given an opportunity to build a site which will be the perfect tool for me to do so. I will be working on this site in MOST of my free time for the next 10days because I want to launch on April1. Any and all help will be very much appreciated.

Thank you so very much in advance.
~mabwah

P.S. Sorry about the "War and Peace" length of the post. Future posts will be shorter and more to the point… Doh!

[mabwah]

Just wanted to say thanks virtual. The surreal & cushy CMSs are just the tkt! You are so correct about our friend Google & I ‘ve been saying this for years. It was an early breakthrough for me when I learned I can use computers to learn about computers;)

So the site as envisioned at this point is only 5 to 7 pages. For this reason am going with embedded css… though only at this stage. My thinking is that perhaps all of the css common to the various pages -at some point- should be externalized & except that I will still leave css pertaining to fonts & menu info as embedded. Am I barking up the right tree? Seems this way in viewing the html fer a given page I have the menu & font for that page as "at a glance". Then the external css stylesheet can be used for global changes & I won’t somehow inadvertently change the menu. So far the menu is giving me all kinds of heck though that seems a common issue among us noobs.

Thank you again for your help virtual!

~mabwah

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