I must be missing something--it seems to me that all you need is a simple one-row table, and if you know how to create an html table at all, that should be simple to you

(table border=1)
(tr)
(td)Nav bar(/td)
(td)page body(/td)
(/tr)
(/table)

like this:

<table border=1><tr><td>My Short Nav Bar</td>
<td>I am the very model of a modern major-general<br>I've information vegetable, animal and mineral<br>I know the Kings of England and I quote the fights historical<br>From Marathon to Waterloo in order categorical<br>I'm very well aquainted, too, with matters mathematical....</td></tr></table>

And if you want your nav bar to start at the top of the left-hand "frame", you use TD VALIGN="TOP" for the left-hand table cell:

<table border=1><tr><td valign="top">My Short Nav Bar</td>
<td>I am the very model of a modern major-general<br>I've information vegetable, animal and mineral<br>I know the Kings of England and I quote the fights historical<br>From Marathon to Waterloo in order categorical<br>I'm very well aquainted, too, with matters mathematical....</td></tr></table>