Frames
This is going to be a very simple tutorial on frames, because as far as I've seen, the
simpler the use of frames, the less intrusive they become. There's also going to be some info
on fixing links to other pages so that they don't open in your frames.
Please keep in mind that not all browsers support frames. Therefore, if you're going to use
frames, it's best to make a non-frames version of your page as well.
Frames need their own source code. You then insert other pages into the frames through this
code:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> THIS WILL BE THE TITLE FOR ALL OF YOUR PAGES WITHIN THE FRAMES SO CHOOSE WISELY!
</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET COLS="15%,85%" BORDERCOLOR=00ff00>
<FRAME NAME="frame1" src="sample6.html">
<FRAME NAME="frame2" src="sample7.html">
</FRAMESET>
</HTML>
Here's what it means:
- <FRAMESET> </FRAMESET>
These tags indicate that the type of document is a frame souce code.
- COLS
This tag indictes the size of the frames. I use percentages, but I'm sure you could use pixels
if you wanted to.
- BORDERCOLOR
Optional. Allows you to change the color of your frame borders.
- <FRAME>
These tags enclose the information on specific frames.
- NAME
It's important to name each frame. More on this later.
- src
This indicates the page that will open in the frame.
Here's how it looks.
As you can see, frames allow you to view two pages at the same time.
Generally, the smaller of the frames becomes the menu for the entire page. But the default
setting for links in frames is that they open in the frame they're clicked on. So how do you
get a link in the smaller frame to open in the bigger frame? This is why it's so important to
name your frames.
Here's how to get a link in frame1 to open in frame2:
<A href="sample4.html" TARGET="frame2"> Po page </A>
TARGET tells the link where to open.
Take a look.
Now, if you tried the link on the page that opened in frame2, you noticed that it opened in
frame2. This is one of the problems with frames, too many people just leave them like that, and
if you like a page you're left to figure it out for yourself how to bookmark it. Here's a way
to make sure your links don't open in your frames at all:
<A href="http://www.pbs.org/teletubbies" TARGET="_top"> the PBS
page</A>.
Note the underscore (_) before top. This is important.
Check it out.
Keen, hunh?
If you'd like to learn more about frames, I suggest you check this out:
Frame tutorials
Back to the tutorial menu