What Are Frames?

Frames allow the author to split a web page into many different windows or panels. Each window of the frameset could actually contain a completely independent web page; even a page from another website.

Many designers will use one pane of the frameset as a navigational device which is used to send various content pages to a designated window.

Each window can be set to scroll its content or not to scroll.

There are designers who claim to be able to create a frames website without using frames. They call it frameless frames. The only resemblance between the two is the scrolling feature. If the only feature of frames that you are interested in is scrolling web pages, don't waste you time with frames. Study a little CSS and learn how to make static HTML pages scroll.

Why Don't More Authors Use Frames?

You can find a lot of negative information about why you shouldn't build your website with frames. Most of that information was written back around 1996 and is outdated and mostly false.

There are a lot of parrots that pick up that information and write about frames today and most of them don't know what they're talking about.

Then, you get the purist -geeks that talk about web standards. Now, if Microsoft and the Mozilla people, don't give a hang about web standards when they're developing their browsers, why should you?

The number one reason why more people don't create websites using frames is the Search Engine Myth. Most people don't know how to set up a frames site for search engine spiders to crawl. If you don't set them up properly they won't be crawled.

After all, the source pages of a frames website are just HTML pages. If you can't get your frames website indexed, you probably couldn't get a conventional HTML website indexed either.

The second reason why more people don't use frames is because of the little bit of extra work involved to do them properly. If you are lazy, frames probably aren't for you!!

If you're a rebel or a 'lone wolf', frames may be for you!

Are There Advantages?

There are some advantages to building a website with frames.

It is easier to add new pages to a frames website. If you build your frames site using a navigational frame the link to the new page need only be added to the links page.

On a conventional HTML website, with a properly configured navigation system, you might need to add a link to the new page to every page in the website.

It is also easier to redesign a frames website. A complete redesign of a conventional website requires one to change every web page. In a frames world you would only need to change the frameset pages.

If you think of frame windows as channels as some developers do, the possibilities are endless for presenting different articles, pages or media types in different windows all at the same time on the same web page.