Working with Frames

The two most common tools used to layout and organize a web page are tables and frames. Read the following article to answer these questions:

Macromedia: Intro to Frames

W3Schools: Frames

1. What is the most common use of frames?

2. What are the disadvantages of using frames?

There are two methods of creating framesets in Dreamweaver, using predefined framesets or designing your own. In this exercise you will create two empty framesets using each method.

Design Method
1. Open a new document and save it as frame1. On the pull down menu select Modify > Frameset >
List all of the options available under the Frameset menu.

2. Split the frame left. Click on the dividing line in the center of the page so your cursor changes to a double arrow. Click and drag the line to the left of the screen so you have about an inch of space in the left hand frame. Practice with the rest of the options under this menu item. After each change click undo to return to the two frame page.

3. You can accomplish the same thing by clicking on the outside frame border and dragging the frame border into the frame. What happens?

4. If the frame border is not an exterior border you can accomplish the same thing by selecting the border and then pressing the Alt key and dragging.

5. Select the outside frame border but this time move your cursor to one of the corners until it becomes a four headed arrow. Now drag the four headed cursor into the frame. What happens this time?

6. Continue to practice with each of these methods until you feel comfortable with each.

Predefined Framesets
Macromedia also supplies the most common frameset designs as predefined framesets that you can use or modify.

1. Open a new page but this time in the list of general types of pages select Frameset instead of basic page. How many different predefined framesets are available?

2. The other method of using predefined framesets is to use the Frames tab in the Insert panel. Insert a frame within a frame using this method. What do you call a frameset that is inside another frameset?

3. Open the code view of your page. What tags have been added to the page?

4. Open a new page and choose the Fixed Top and Nested Left Frame frameset. From the menu bar select Window > Others > Frames. Minimize the other panels so you have lots of room to see this one. What is the name of the panel that opens up? Describe what happens in this panel as you click inside each frame in your page.

5. Now click inside each window in the panel. What happens in your web page?

6. In the Advanced Layout panel click on the outermost frame border, this should cause the entire frameset to be selected. There should be a dashed black line around the entire outside frame and in the properties panel it should say "Frameset". List four properties of this frameset that you can change.

7. What are the three types of units I can use with frames?

8. Demonstrate your ability to create and modify pages containing frames and show the answers to these questions to your instructor for teacher check.

 

Time to start creating some frames!