Creating Web Sites Bible, Third Edition

Chapter 9. Organizing Your Site with Frames

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Designing frame layouts

• Creating framesets

• Setting targets for your links

• Customizing frame borders and margins

• Setting scroll bar options

• Avoiding frame problems

• Frames quick reference

Frames are used to put multiple Web pages on screen at the same time. Because each framed page resides within its own distinct and limited area of the screen, the effect is to create a seamless whole out of many parts.

All the frames together are contained within a different kind of Web page called a frameset. Framesets themselves are never seen by a site visitor. Only their contents — which consist of the borders of the frames and the framed pages — are visible.

The primary reason to use frames is to provide at least one area of the screen where the content remains stable while another area changes. The stable area keeps something important in front of your site visitors at all times. What this important item is varies from site to site. Most often, a special page showing a set of links to all the other pages in the site is kept in a small frame, while the pages themselves are displayed in the remaining screen area. The small frame with links is commonly called a navigation frame, because to navigate to any page in the site, visitors simply click one of the links in the frame, which loads the link in what could be called the "viewing" frame. By keeping the links content available at all times, visitors are able to move about the site more easily ...