American Audio DCD-PRO240 User Manual download pdf (Page 189)

Freeway Reference: Working with Frames

189

Browser support

Frames were originally a proprietary extension to the HTML language, which became popular with users and web site designers long

before there was any formal recognition of them in the HTML specification.

Statistically speaking, at the time of this writing, almost everyone who visits your site will be using a frames-capable browser of some sort. Studies

indicate that between 95–100% of visitors to most sites are using a frames-capable browser.

However, it’s worth remembering that in some browsers, it is possible to turn off the display of frames using the browser preference

options. This means that even someone using a frames-capable browser may not be able to see your frames site if the display of these

has been turned off (whether by accident or intentionally).

Visitors who aren’t using a frames-capable browser at all may include people using text-based or PDA-based web browsers, and visually

impaired people using speaking browsers.

Web designers need to decide for themselves whether to use frames at all, provide alternate content or sites for the non-frame users, or

just ignore the issue altogether, based on the kind of site they’re designing and the anticipated audience.

It often helps to see what other designers have done when creating frames-based sites similar to yours. One option is to visit a few sites

which are aimed at the same sort of audience as yours, and simply view the source of the main frameset page in your web browser to

see if there is Noframes content specified. Another method would be to obtain a browser that

does not support frames, and visit a selection of sites using it. Microsoft Internet Explorer

Mac is probably the only browser which allows the user to set a preference to turn off frames

while browsing, but is no longer available as a download from Microsoft. A large number of

major sites which use frames, offer no alternative content whatsoever, without seeming to

antagonize people.

Bookmarking URLs

One of the great strengths of the web as an information resource is the ability to find any page you want at any time, using its unique

address, the URL. However, when browsing pages through a frameset instead of directly in their own window, the browser location bar

no longer displays the URL for the actual pages being browsed—rather, it displays the URL for the frameset page through which the

content pages are being viewed. Bookmarking this URL after following a few links and returning to it later will restore the pages that

were in view initially, not the pages that were in view when the bookmark was created, and many people find this irritating.

There are other problems related to this. In the original concept of the web, a page was a self-contained unit—it contained all the

information provided by the author regarding context, links, and so on, so that when you revisited a page you had been to before, you

had the same options and information available to you.

However, in a frames site where branding, navigation, and content can be split over different pages, this self-contained aspect is lost.

Suppose you did manage to record the URL for the actual content page you were viewing and returned to this page at a later date; all that

you would see is the content page itself, without the context of the originally accompanying frames which surrounded it. In order to see

exactly what you saw the first time, you would need to start at the original frameset and proceed through the same series of links.

Print Problems

Web browsers are notoriously bad at printing web pages at the best of times, but the additional problems which result from trying to

print framesets as you see them make it nearly impossible for the browser to get it right. For example, should all the frames be printed

or just one? What should happen if you have more content than will fit in a frame without scrolling? What should happen if there are

two or more frames with scrolling content in view at the same time?

Where visitors are likely to wish to print the page contents, experienced web publishers often provide alternate versions of the page

which have been specifically designed for printing to try to get around these problems.

Search Engines

Search engines use a variety of methods for indexing a site and often have problems deciding what exactly to index in frames sites. This

can result in referencing inappropriate entries. To read some real-life experiences of how one web master got on with search engines and

his frames-based site, visit http://www.eric-a-hall.com/articles/19980209.html.

Another problem can occur if visitors enter a site through a search engine reference to one of the content pages. If branding and

navigation are created using separate frames, visitors who access one of the content pages on its own may be left with no idea of which

site they are on or how to navigate to other pages. For this reason, many web designers repeat a selection of important links as HTML

text at the foot of every page, so that such visitors can always reach important places like the home page.

User Preference

Although many people like visiting frames sites, especially sites that use frames elegantly, there is a small but substantial group of people

who dislike their use. For some of them, the dislike is a rational one, based on some or all of the reasons above; for others, it seems to be

simply personal preference. It’s worth remembering that not everyone may be pleased to see a new frames version of your site, despite

whatever benefits it brings.

Note: Older or obsolete browsers can

sometimes be found on the Evolt.org web

site:

http://browsers.evolt.org

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American Audio DCD-PRO240 User Manual Page 189

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