FRAMES

Design

Frames in web page design allows an html author to partition up the Web browser window into multiple subwindows. Utmost care must be taken to prevent Web surfers from becoming confused and disoriented. Each frame, (subwindow), should have only one purpose. The function of a frame should be maintained across all of the documents displayed in the frames. The layout of frames should be designed to help a reader quickly navigate and read the provided information. Attractive frame layout will implicitly inform a user as much about the author as poor layout.

Features

Frames provide layout capabilities similar to tables, but include greater functionality. Each frame can display information from separate HTML files. A frame can be assigned a name, with which it can be referenced, (targeted), by URLs. This allows a frame's contents to be changed dynamically in response to a user action. Frames can be set to a dynamic size that will be automatically changed by the browser as a user resizes their window. This dynamic resizing feature can be turned off, (disabled), to provide a fixed frame size to ensure that the contents are always visible. By default Web browsers allow users to change frame sizes unless resizing is explicitly disabled. Messages of required frame supporting browsers and even alternative non-frame views can also be imbedded in the frames.

Applications

The use of frames allows a Web designer to provide a consistent interface across their pages. This can be achieved by assigning particular frames to hold constant information, such as a navigation bar or buttons, header, footer, table of contents, logos, etc. Other frames can be provided to hold dynamic information that will be updated as a user traverses the pages by following links in the constant frames, (as well as in the dynamic frames).