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Getting Started with Frames

Frames offer another approach to web page construction. Frames are areas within a browser window, each of which can display a separate web pageeach containing its own, text, graphics, and other content, and even a table or CSS-based layout. Several frames being used together are collectively called a frameset. The frameset file isn't displayed in the visitor's browser window as content, but it's needed to control the other frames in the layout.

Think of frames as like the rows and columns in a tablethey essentially divide the browser window into a grid. Think of the frameset itself as the table that contains those rows and columns, holding everything together. So a frameset that contains four frames, for example, actually needs five web pages to work. C'est bon?

If you've been surfing the web for a while, you've probably encountered a site that uses frames, so you may be familiar with them. Usually, a frames-based layout contains a narrow frame on the left that contains the site's main navigation, and a larger frame that contains content. With this arrangement, the site's navigation will always be available, even if the visitor scrolls down through the main content.

Three frames are being used in this frameset: a frame that spans the top of the browser window, a narrow frame on the left that contains the site's navigation controls, and a larger frame that occupies the rest of the browser window.

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Just as you can nest a table within a table, you can nest framesetsthat is, you can insert a frameset within the frame of another, larger, frameset. For example, imagine you have a frames-based layout with a frame spanning the top of the window and two horizontal frames beneath it. This layout actually uses two framesets. The first frameset divides the browser window horizontally into two rows: one frame above and one below. The second frameset is placed in the lower row and divides the screen vertically: one frame on the left, and the other on the right. With nested framesets you can achieve very precise layouts, and best of all, Dreamweaver does all the hard work for you. In fact, many of Dreamweaver's predefined framesets (which we'll get to shortly) use nesting.

Many times, nesting is required to build the frameset you want. However, Dreamweaver makes nesting framesets very easy and even uses nesting in many of its predefined framesets.

As interesting as frames may sound, carefully consider whether you want to use them in your site. Frames-based sites can get complicated not only to build, but also for surfers to navigate. Many times, a more straightforward approach like, layers or tables, achieves the same objectives better than frames.