11.1 An Overview of Frames
Figure 11-1 (shown in Section 11.3.1.2) is a simple
example of a frame display. It shows how the document window may be
divided into columns and rows of individual frames separated by rules
and scrollbars. Although it is not immediately apparent in the
example, each frame in the window contains an independent document.
Frames may contain any valid content the browser is capable of
displaying, including XHTML documents and multimedia. If the
frame's contents include a hyperlink that the user
selects, the new document's contents even
another frame document may replace that same frame, another
frame's content, or the entire browser window.
Frames are enabled with a special frame document. Its contents do not
get displayed. Rather, the frame document contains extension tags
that tell the browser how to divide its main display window into
discrete frames and what documents go inside the frames.
The individual documents referenced and displayed in the frame
document window act independently, to a degree; the frame document
controls the entire window. You can, however, direct one
frame's document to load new content into another
frame. That's done by attaching a name to a frame
and targeting the named frame with a special attribute for the
hyperlink <a> tag.