Frames > Frames overview

Frames overview

Frames are used in a Web page to divide it into multiple HTML pages. For example, a Web page consists of three frames. One thin frame on the side that contains a scrolling menu, one frame that runs along the top that contains the logo and title of the Web site, and one large frame that takes up the rest of the page and contains the main content. Each of these frames is an independent HTML page. They all work together on the page through the use of one or more framesets, which is an HTML page that defines the structure and properties for the Web page, including information about the number of frames displayed on a page, the size of the frames, the source of the page loaded into a frame, and other definable properties. The frameset page isn't displayed in a browser; it simply stores information about how the frames on a page will display. (It is the page you should preview when you use Preview in Browser, however.)

In this example, the top frame would remain static and never change from page to page in the site. The side frame menu will have links that change the content of the main frame area, but otherwise remain static. The main frame area is the dynamic area, that changes depending on what menu item you choose.

You can format all of the frames and framesets in your page through the Property inspector. You can set scrolling on or off, set width and height, name each page, and more. For more information, see About frame and frameset properties.

A Web page that contains three frames consists of four separate HTML pages: the frameset file and the three files containing the content that appears inside the frames. When you design a page using framesets, you must save each of these four files in order for the page to work properly in the browser. For more information about how to create successful Web pages that utilize frames, see About creating frame-based Web pages.