Dreamweaver Tutorials Frames

Before we start on the next set of Dreamweaver Tutorials on framesets, I would like to offer you some thing to thank about, while to the novice web designer it looks like all his prays have been answered, not all is as it seems to be.

Deciding if you should use a frameset
The most common use of frames is for navigation. A frameset often includes one section containing a navigation page and another frame to display the main pages.

Designing with frames can get confusing. Some websites nest framesets within framesets, this is not a good idea unless you really know what you are doing.

Many web designers prefer not to use frames, and many uses of the web don't like frames. In most cases this down to having used web sites that use frames badly, after these dreamweaver tutorials you should have a good understanding of what to do, making your web site easy to use.

Not all web browsers provide frame support, and frames may be hard for visitors with disabilities to use, it's always a good idea to use the noframes tag and if possable have a frameless site for people that can not view a standard framed site.

I feel I should point out that some good can come out of a web site that uses frames, up to now I have painted a pretty bleak picture of frames. Dreamweaver does make it easy to

The browser doesn’t need to reload the graphics for every page.
Each frame has its own scrollbar , a visitor can scroll the frames .
The navigation bar is always insight ( make sure all the buttons / links can be seen on a small screen, people don't mind the main page having scroll bars, but please keep the links in clear view.

Disadvantages to using frames include the following:
Lining up graphics can be hard, just because it lines up on your browser does not mean it will look like that in another..
Bookmarking a page is hard, and of course if a page gets called ( from a search engine listing ) the frameset may not get loaded, ask your self how is the user going to navigate your site if this happens.
To sum it up, if you can design the site without frames please do so.

Anyway I shall now step down of my soap box and if you still wish to find out more, the next Dreamweaver Tutorials will get you started on building part of your site using this advanced form of layout.