did you gave a shot with ssi files?
ssi = server side include
it works that way:
1 - program your page layout in the html editor of your choice, your page should look like the image attached;
2 - then you cut the elements that would make a ‘frame’ like:
> [COLOR=DarkGreen]Top menu[/COLOR]
> [COLOR=DarkRed]Contents[/COLOR]
> [COLOR=Navy]bottom barr[/COLOR]
3 - in a new blank file (with no code at all) paste the codes that make the [COLOR=DarkGreen]Top menu[/COLOR] and save as [COLOR=DarkGreen]top_menu.ssi[/COLOR];
4 - do the same for the [COLOR=Navy]bottom barr[/COLOR];
5 - then leave the [COLOR=DarkRed]Contents[/COLOR] in this file along with the page´s code, and name it according to the contents subject.
6 - in that page, were was the other elements ([COLOR=DarkGreen]Top menu[/COLOR] and [COLOR=Navy]bottom barr[/COLOR]), you place a tag like this:
<!--#include file="top_menu.ssi" -->
and
<!--#include file="botton_barr.ssi" -->
the codes for the page and the includes should look like this:
Page:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--#include file="top_menu.ssi" -->
<br>
<table width="100%" height="300" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#990000">
<tr>
<td>contents goes here</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
<!--#include file="botton_barr.ssi" -->
</body>
</html>
Top menu INCLUDE:
<table width="100%" height="100" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#006600">top menu goes here</td>
</tr>
</table>
Botton barr INCLUDE:
<table width="100%" height="100" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#000066">
<tr>
<td>botton bar goes here</td>
</tr>
</table>
hope it is what you´re looking for 