About Frames in HTML...
= Index DOT Html by Brian Wilson [bloo@blooberry.com] =

Justification for Frames

The "Frame" feature set in HTML was created by Netscape for version 2.0 of its Navigator product. It allows the browser screen to be sub-divided into smaller portions. Each of these portions (or frames) represent a separate sub-document which can be individually controlled and addressed. Frames also allow an author to specify the placement behaviors of these embedded HTML sub-documents. It is a very nice concept, but it essentially conveys explicit formatting information (which is not the intention of HTML in general.) In addition, the results are often VERY resolution dependent.

Frames Usage

[ <frameset>, <frame>, <noframes> ]

Frameset:

This element controls the layout of sub-documents on the browser display. It allows the display to be divided up into a specified number of rows or columns with specific or dynamic sizes. Each frameset structure can be further divided into more rows and columns by nesting other FRAMESET structures within its contents.

Frame:

This is the element that actually defines what the content of the frame will be. This tag indicates a URL of a document to place within the space provided for it by the FRAMESET layout definition. Other properties of displaying the frame, such as resizing and scrolling capability, are also controlled through this tag.

Noframes:

The FRAMESET tag takes the place that is normally occupied by the BODY tag. This eliminates the traditional structure of an HTML document, so the NOFRAMES element comes to the rescue in these situations. This tag allows for backward compatibility with older browsers by allowing a traditional BODY structure to be placed within a NOFRAMES element. Browsers that DO support frames will ignore the NOFRAMES element, and older browsers will only see the traditional HTML document structure in place. All browsers will be happy.

Frames: To Use or Not?

There are many readers out there who do NOT like to read pages that use frames. Indeed, there are some compelling arguments against their use - they are mostly in the speed and implementation of frames. There are situations when their use is also very helpful, and the arguments in favor of frames in these cases is for better intuitive navigation. In the end, it is the author that must decide whether to create a document using frames or not, and whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Advantages to Using Frames

• Elements that the user should always see (such as navigation bars, copyrights, and titles) can be specified only once.
• Table of contents are more intuitive - One frame can contain a Table of Contents that can be clicked upon. The results can be displayed in an adjoining frame.
• Side-by-side presentation of multiple documents allows queries to be posed and answered on the same page.

Disadvantages to Using Frames

• Frame layout is often heavily dependent on resolution. Unintended scrollbars are often displayed which can eclipse the frame content.
• Reduction of the overall amount of usable space for sub-document content as the number of sub-frames increases.
• An extra download request must be made for each sub-frame. Each of these requests can be more and more costly as the download bandwidth for the user is reduced.

Official References

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/Cougar/HTML.dtd

The experimental HTML (Cougar) draft
[Demonstrates some of the directions HTML is taking. NOTE: it STILL does not include Frames, but hints that it may be included soon.]

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR/WD-layout.html

W3's "Frame-based layout via Style Sheets" - a possible future alternative to frames.

http://home.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/frames.html

Netscape's official documentation for frames

http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/author/newhtml/htmlr020.htm

Internet Explorer 3.0 Tag reference
[Details frame usage and new IFRAME extension syntax]

http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/author/newhtml/htmlr009.htm

Internet Explorer's reference section on Frames

Tutorials

http://www.newbie.net/frames/2ed/menu.htm

Charlton D. Rose's Netscape Frames Tutorial

http://www.spunwebs.com/sites2c/frmtutor.html

WebSpinner's Frames Tutorial

http://www.ibic.com:80/NIndex/Frames/EZHome.html

"Frames Made Easy"

http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/author/newfeat/ss_frame.htm

Internet Explorer's step-by-step guide to making a framed document.

http://www.hwg.org/faqs/frameFAQ.html

Matthew Miller's Frames FAQ

http://www.columbia.edu/~jll32/html/frame.html

Jay's guide to frames

http://ucunix.san.uc.edu/~solkode/w3guide/frames.html

All about frames

http://www.beadsland.com/landscape/framoff/

'Whats wrong with Frames?' - an analysis of the problems of using frames