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Web Pages and HTML icon

Using  Frames  in
a  Web  Page

Creating a Framed Presentation
Containing Multiple Pages

Additional Topics

*Are Frames A Good Idea?
*Using the <BASE> Tag
*The <LAYER> tag



Are Frames A Good Idea?

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Frames are by no means an accepted part of Web design. Some Web authors feel that frames are too constricting, limiting flexibility in designing the layout of a Web page. There is also concern that frames use up valuable screen space. Frames can also be difficult for users. By placing an HTML file inside of a frame, the source code for that file is removed from the user. This can cause some problems. For example, a user may be interested in creating a bookmark to a page displayed inside of the frame, but it is not always easy to discover the URL for that page. For these reasons and others, some Web authors will not use frames in their pages.

On the other hand, frames can give you more flexibility in designing your Web presentation. You can place information in different Web pages, removing redundancy and making your site easier to manage when you have to update only a few files rather than the whole.

Here are some sources on the Web with other opinions on the "frame debate."

Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide
The Frames Controversy
I Hate Frames Club
I Like Frames Club

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Using the <BASE> Tag

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In this tutorial, you get to use the <BASE> tag to specify the default target for hyperlinks in a frame layout. Another use for the <BASE> tag is to specify the default URL of the document.

The syntax of the <BASE> tag is:

<BASE HREF=URL>

where URL is the URL of the document.

The <BASE> tag is useful in situations where the document is read out of context. By including the URL of the source document, the browser can then determine any partial URLs or relative paths that might be specified in either hyperlinks or <IMG> tags. Note that the <BASE> tag appears in HEAD section of the HTML file only.

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The <LAYER> tag

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While Netscape does not support the <IFRAME> tag, you can still insert the contents of an external Web page into your document using Netscape’s <LAYER> tag. For example, the tag:

<LAYER SRC="T1.html" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=150></LAYER>

inserts the contents of the T1.html file into a layer that is 200 pixels wide by 150 pixels high. Used in this fashion, the <LAYER> tag resembles the <IFRAME> tag used by Internet Explorer and adopted as a standard in HTML 4.0.

If you want to make your page available to browsers that do not support the <LAYER> tag, you can do so with the <NOLAYER> tag. Any tags placed inside the <NOLAYER> tag will be ignored by Netscape, but will be available to other browsers. For example, the following code:

<LAYER SRC="T1.html" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=150></LAYER>

<NOLAYER>

<IFRAME SRC="T1.html" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=150>

</NOLAYER>

can be used to display the contents of the T1.html file in either Netscape (which supports layers) or Internet Explorer (which supports internal frames via the <IFRAME> tag.)

Netscape has pledged to follow the HTML 4.0 standards, so it is unlikely to further develop the <LAYER> tag in the future.



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