Re: When is it appropriate to use HTML frames? -- MIDRANGE-L

The fact that frames have fallen out of vogue seems to be the biggest reason
not to use frames.  It is less a compatability issue than a matter of taste
and experience in most cases, my advise is to stay away from frames when
begining to learn html because frames are one of those nifty little tricks
you will out grow.  Frames make site maintenance a real hellish chore and
learning to make proper use of frames will take up time better spent on
navigability and content.

A well designed site can make almost transparent use of frames for
navigation.  If you design your site with SCROLLING="NO" NORESIZE, and make
sure your site looks good at 640x480 then frames can make your site look
professional, but one little slip up an you look like a moron.

A few good reasons to use frames; frames are parsed almost exactly alike in
every browser even way back to the last of the 3.X browsers. This is not
true for CSS, NetScape and IE parse CSS differently and if you are designing
for a wide audience you have to consider that older browsers and even some
newer ones like Opera 4.5 might not like CSS.

Spiders and bots can be fooled into ignoring framed pages, and if you make
sure that your meta tags document the contents of your site the spiders and
bots wont miss anything.  But if you use frames and force spiders and bots
to overlook those pages you will need to make sure your site is very easily
navigable.

On the off chance that a user starts at a framed page then you could use
JavaScript to redirect the user to the framed version of your page, at the
very least make sure you put a site mape on each framed page so that they
know where they are and can get back to your sites root by clicking a link.

There is really no reason not to use frames if you have you mind set on it,
you just have to do lots more planning and site maintenance can be a chore.
If you are getting into really involved site design, get one of the HTML
project management packages such as HomeSite or DreamWeaver these will take
some of the pain out of the job.

Other sites helpful to the new web designer;
http://www.websitesthatsuck.com  <Learn good design by looking at bad
design>
http://www.builder.com


-----Original Message-----
From: MacWheel99@aol.com <MacWheel99@aol.com>
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Date: Monday, July 31, 2000 11:53 AM
Subject: Re: When is it appropriate to use HTML frames?


>> So, why not use frames?
>
>You might want to post this question on the e-commerce forum. You can sign
up
>for the eCommerce Discussion List for free at:
>
>    http://www.year2000.com/ecommerce
>
>My problems with frames as a user is that some sites have an over abundance
>of scroll bars needed to view data that could just as well have been on its
>own page.  Frames seem to be a way to cram 3-5 times as much information on
a
>web page than anyone can view at one time, then offer scroll bars to get to
>it.
>
>One nice thing I saw on a site recently "This web site is best viewed using
a
>screen resolution of 800x600 or higher"
>
>Al Macintyre  ���
>MIS Manager Green Screen Programmer & Computer Janitor of BPCS 405 CD
Rel-02
>running on AS/400 V4R3 http://www.cen-elec.com Central Industries of
>Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and electrical
>sub-assemblies
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