As a proponent of frames.... and nearly all sites I now design implement
frames .. I would like to point out their advantages and disadvantages.
You decide whether they are worth it or not.
Advantages:
(1) Implemented as a navigation device they significantly enhance the users
access to information on the site. I think MacWare Revue is a good example
of this. (see also <a href="<a href="http://inscon.com">http://inscon.com</a>">http://inscon.com</a> and http://tmkt-resources.com) The
directory control buttons are always viewable, regardless of where you are
within a document in the main viewer frame. Want to jump from freeware to
shareware to feedback, you don't have to scroll back to the top or bottom
of a page. Just click on the appropriate button on the left. I have found
that this also significantly improves the speed of the system once you've
downloaded the initial set of frames.
(2) Depending on how you create your URL's you can "capture" a reader even
though they might go to another web site, they are still operating within
MacWare Revue's frames environment. Best example is when you do a "Search"
from MacWare Revue of MIT's HyperArchive. Even though the information of
the search is returned from MIT's server, it is displayed within MacWare
Revue's viewer window. Naturally one has to be careful with this
capability.
Disadvantages:
(1) Reduces total window size. Yes, this is a problem. I think Netscape's
implementation of their own technology demonstrates HOW NOT to use frames.
Their navigation windows are too large and clearly detract from the
usability of the site. I've seen a number of others that abuse rather than
use the technology correctly.
(2) It can skew your hit counts significantly since you must often deliver
as many as 3 to 4 separate HTML documents to build a frame's enabled web
page.
(3) Multi-window generation can be anonying to visitors. If you use a
&lt;target=new&gt; property within the URL, the visitor's browser will generate a
new window over the top of the old window (this can be an advantage to the
original web site, since their screen is still partially visible under the
newly generated browser window).
To determine whether or not readers of MacWare Revue like the frames
approach, I asked them to rate the usability of the design on a scale of
1-5 or poor to excellent. 75% of the respondents rated the design as above
average to excellent and several took the time to write and praise me for
it.(See their letters in "Feedback").
With respect to the size of frames... once you refine the size in rows and
columns this is FIXED, and not adjustable by the browser. For example, If
you define the width of a frame as 100 pixels (the width of MacWare's
control buttons), it will remain 100 pixels, regardless of what size the
browser window is set to. A 100 pixel frame will remain 100 pixels wide on
a 14inch or 20 inch monitor. You can also set the width of any frame to *
which is a default value. This frame will occupy the remaining width of
the browser window.
Hope this helps. If you want some examples, view the source to MacWare
Revue or take a look at some of the other sites, I've recently designed.
Bill
Bill Moore MacWare Revue
Publisher
399 North 117th St.,Ste 301 The MacOS Freeware &amp; Shareware
Omaha, NE 68154 Information Resource
402/330-4373 <a href="<a href="http://piazza.com">http://piazza.com</a>">http://piazza.com</a>
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