Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS5 Bible

Chapter 15. Using Frames and Framesets

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Examining the fundamentals of HTML frames and framesets

• Creating frames in a new document, visually and with frame objects

• Selecting, saving, and closing framesets

• Dreamweaver Technique: Establishing a Frameset

• Altering frame and frameset properties

• Opening links in specific frames

• Targeting multiple frames with a single click

• Dreamweaver Technique: Setting Frame Targets

• Inserting frameless content

• Understanding iframes

The first time I fully appreciated the power of frames, I was visiting a site that displayed examples of what the Webmaster considered "bad" Web pages. The site was essentially a jump-station with a series of links. The author used a frameset with three frames: one that ran all the way across the top of the page, displaying a logo and other basic information; one narrow panel on the left with a scrolling set of links to the sites themselves; and the main viewing area, which took up two-thirds of the center screen. Selecting any of the links caused the site to appear in the main viewing frame.

I was astounded when I finally realized that each frame was truly an independent Web page and that you didn't have to use only Web pages on your own site — you could link to any page on the Internet. That was when I also realized the amount of work involved in establishing a frame Web site: Every page displayed on that site used multiple HTML pages.

Be aware that the use of frames is controversial. Designers opposed to their use give ...