HTML Frame Tutorial – Learning the basics of HTML
HTML Frame Tutorial
The use of frames may not be as
prevalent in HTML design as it once was, but it is
still a worthy form of organizing your Web site and
making it easy to navigate.
Dividing a page using frames
(called a frameset) allows the visitor to view more than
one page at a time without cluttering the screen. Each
frame is its own Web site and can be viewed
independently in a separate window.
The use of frames can be a dynamic
way to get the most visual aspect out of your Web site.
For example, the banner frame can be used for a business
logo along with the company name. The index frame, on
the left side of the screen, can be used as a table of
contents, or as a place to link to other Web sites. The
home frame will contain all the primary contents of the
site, whose data changes each time the visitor clicks on
a link. The footer frame at the bottom can be used as a
means to briefly describe the company and offer e-mail
addresses for contact information.
All of these contents will be seen
on the same screen with the visitor accesses your Web
site.
A frameset is basically a window
with individual panes. Each pane has different content.
You can decide the quantity and size of the panes, as
well as the appearance of the borders and if the panes
will have scroll bars.
Once the window is built, you
create the landscape behind the window by assigning
individual URLs to each frame.
Here is an example of HTML code
creating a simple frameset:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Frameset Example</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET ROWS = “130, *, 75”>
<FRAME NAME = “banner” SRC = “banner.html”>
<FRAMESET COLS = “130, *”>
<FRAME NAME = “home” SRC = “home.html”>
<FRAME NAME = “index” SRC = “index.html”>
</FRAMESET>
<FRAMENAME = “footer” SRC = “footer.html”>
</FRAMESET>
</HTML>
This example shows the frameset
creates three rows of frames and two columns. The widths
of these frames are denoted by the pixel numbers in
quotations. The asterisk indicates the space remaining
for the main (home) screen after the spaces used by the
index, banner and footer.
The use of framesets is not as
common as it was in early Web development primarily
because of the use of navigation bars, which direct a
visitor to information they want. Furthermore, some Web
designers argue that the use of frames counteracts their
intention – they clutter a screen rather than simplify
it.
However, in order for the novice
Web designer to understand all the functions HTML has to
offer, utilizing framesets is a good steppingstone
toward maintaining an optimum site. The experienced
designer can picture a page without the frames but
design the site with the framesets in mind in order to
create an appealing site that is easy to navigate.
Thank you to Javier Moralas for
this HTML Frame Tutorial article.
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