11.5 The <noframes> Tag
A frame document has
no <body>. It must not, since the browser
ignores any frame tags if it finds any
<body> content before it encounters the
first <frameset> tag. A frame document,
therefore, is all but invisible to any non-frames-capable browser.
The <noframes> tag gives some relief to the
frames-disabled.
<noframes>Function: Supplies content for non-frames-capable browsers Attributes: class, dir, id, lang, onClick, onDblClick, onKeyDown, onKeyPress, onKeyUp, onMouseDown, onMouseMove, onMouseOut, onMouseOver, onMouseUp, style, title End tag: </noframes>; sometimes omitted in HTML Contains: body_content Used in: frameset_content |
within the outermost <frameset> tag of a
frame document. Content between the
<noframes> tag and its required end tag
(</noframes>) is not displayed by any
frames-capable browser but is displayed in lieu of other contents in
the frame document by browsers that do not handle frames. The
contents of the <noframes> tag can be any
normal body content, including the <body>
tag itself.
Although this tag is optional, experienced authors typically include
the <noframes> tag in their frame documents
with content that warns non-frames-capable browser users that
they're missing the show. And smart authors give
those users a way out, if not direct access to the individual
documents that make up the frame document contents.
Remember our first frame example in this chapter? Figure 11-5 shows what happens when that frame document
gets loaded into an old version of Mosaic.
Figure 11-5. A <noframes> message in a non-frame-capable browser

The HTML to produce this message looks like this:
<noframes>
Sorry, this document can be viewed only with a
frame-capable browser. Go to the <a href=">
first HTML document</a> in the set.
</noframes>
<noframes> works because most browsers are
extremely tolerant of erroneous tags and incorrect documents. A
non-frames browser simply ignores the frame tags.
What's left, then, is the content of the
<noframes> tag, which the browser dutifully
displays.
If your browser strictly enforces some version of HTML or XHTML that
does not support frames, it may simply display an error message and
refuse to display the document, even if it contains a
<noframes> tag.
11.5.1 <noframes> Attributes
There are no attributes specific to the
<noframes> tag, but you can use any of the
16 standard attributes: class and
style for style management,
lang and dir for language type
and display direction, title and
id for titling and naming the enclosed content,
and any of the event attributes for user-activated JavaScript
processing within the <noframes>
tag.Section 3.6.1.1] [Section 3.6.1.2] [Section 4.1.1.4] [Section 4.1.1.4] [Section 8.1.1] [Section 8.3] [Section 12.3.3]