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- What is it?
- This tag is part of the Frames syntax. Each FRAME tag within the
FRAMESET structure defines the URL contents of a particular frame window
as well as attributes the frame window will carry. A particular frame can
be TARGETed as a destination for hyperlinks
when given a NAME attribute to identify it.
- Attributes
- BorderColor
- 2
| 3 | 3.2
| IE | M
| N3B5
- Required? No
- Description:
Controls the color to be used for frame borders. The color value
specified in the FRAME tag overrides any previously defined FRAMESET colors
for that frame.
- Values:
RGB triplet or special
Color name.
- FrameBorder
- 2
| 3 | 3.2
| IE3A1 | M
| N3B5
- Required? No
- Description:
Controls the display of the border around the frame. This value overrides any
global FRAMEBORDER attributes already set in a FRAMESET tag. Because borders
are shared between frames, a border will only be turned off if all the frames
sharing it have their FRAMEBORDER attribute set to "no" (or 0.)
- Values:
Netscape lists values for this attribute as Yes
[DEFAULT] and No.
Internet Explorer lists values of 1
[DEFAULT] and 0
[display no border.]
- MarginHeight
- 2
| 3 | 3.2
| IE3A1 | M
| N2
- Required? No
- Description:
This attribute gives the author control over the top and bottom margins
of the current frame. Default behavior is to allow the browser to decide
on the margin values.
- Values:
Integers representing the
pixel height for the top and bottom margin. Must be values that do not
yield a margin value of 0 or less, or a value that would not allow any
text to be displayed.
- MarginWidth
- 2
| 3 | 3.2
| IE3A1 | M
| N2
- Required? No
- Description:
This attribute gives the author control over the left and right margins of
the current frame. Default behavior is to allow the browser to decide on
the margin values.
- Values:
Integers representing the
pixel width for the left and right margin. Must be values that do not
yield a margin value of 0 or less, or a value that would not allow any
text to be displayed.
- Name
- 2
| 3 | 3.2
| IE3A1 | M
| N2
- Required? No
- Description:
Indicates the symbolic name assigned to the current frame for reference
by the browser when other links or actions target the frame as a
destination. Named frames in a FRAMESET structure can serve as a
destination of links via the TARGET
attribute within the A,
AREA, BASE,
and FORM tags.
- Values:
String value beginning with
an alphanumeric character. Default value for this attribute (and hence
for all framed documents) is to be unnamed.
- NoResize
- 2
| 3 | 3.2
| IE3A1 | M3B2
| N2
- Required? No
- Description:
This is a stand-alone flag which tells the browser that the current frame
is not resizable by the user. Assigning this attribute to one frame can
effect the resizability of other adjacent frames. Default behavior
for all frames is to be resizable.
- Values: NA
- Scrolling
- 2
| 3 | 3.2
| IE3A1 | M3B2
| N2
- Required? No
- Description:
This provides guidelines for displaying a scrollbar in the frame
for the user.
- Values:
Auto
[Let the browser decide if a scrollbar is necessary -
DEFAULT.]
Yes [always
provide a scrollbar]
No [never
provide scrollbar]
- Src
- 2
| 3 | 3.2
| IE3A1 | M3B2
| N2
- Required? Yes
- Description:
This attribute represents the URL of the current frame document. A FRAME
tag with no SRC attribute will display a blank space where the frame
would be.
- Values: Values can be either relative
or absolute URLs.
- Example
- <html>
<head>
<title>Frames
Example</title>
</head>
<frameset ROWS="20,25%,*">
<frame SRC="frame1.html"
NAME="frame1">
<frame SRC="frame2.html"
NAME="frame2">
<frameset COLS="30%,*">
<frame SRC="frame3.html" NAME="frame3">
<frame SRC="frame4.html" NAME="frame4">
</frameset>
<noframes>
<body>
This text
will appear only if the browser does not support frames.
</body>
</noframes>
</frameset>
</html>
- Parent Model
- <frameset>
- Content Model
- This tag accepts no content.
Tips & Tricks
- There are many readers out there who do not like frames. Keep this in mind when
authoring your pages.
- Seriously consider the reasons WHY you want to author a page using frames. Using
frames can involve a costly amount of repetitive downloads that a user could quickly
tire of.
- Good situations to use frames:
Elements that the User Should Always See.
Things such as control bars, copyright notices, and title graphics can be
placed in a static, individual frame.
Table of Contents.
One frame can contain an index that, when clicked, displays results in an
adjoining frame.
Question and Answer.
Frames design allows queries to be posed and answered on the same page, with
one frame holding the query form, and the other presenting the results.
- It is STRONGLY recommended to include alternate body content
in the NOFRAMES section of a frames definition document. Even if the content
is a link to a non-framed version of the page, this provides users of frames
incapable browsers the chance to view the content of your site.
Browser Peculiarities
- Internet Explorer briefly flirted with a syntax for floating frames (implemented
like an IMG tag) using extensions to the FRAME tag. This was changed to the
IFRAME tag in 3.0 Beta 2 to allow for backward
compatibility for non-supporting browsers. When the old syntax is encountered in
versions 3.0 Beta 2 and greater, Internet Explorer gives a warning message that
the syntax has changed.
- The Mosaic version demo'ed did not support TARGETing of frames yet.
- Netscape does not allow recursive FRAMESET calls to any parent document structure.
It is unknown if Mosaic or Internet Explorer also do this.
- Anecdote: A security hole was found in early Netscape implementations where an
author could specify a fairly invisible 1 pixel frame that could keep track of
all sites the user visited.
- I have seen behavior in some Internet Explorer versions where the BODY BACKGROUND
attribute in the NOFRAMES section is applied to the frame borders. This behavior
is an odd artifact and probably a bug.
Boring Copyright Stuff...