Trying to piece together a basic website for a friend and I'm having trouble with the stupidest little things. Right now I'm stuck trying to get a link to open in the right target frame. I'm using Frontpage 2003. It has been years since I've done anything like this and the last time I did it was with Dreamweaver.

For simplicity, let's say there are two frames...A left frame with links and a right frame which should be the content that appears when those links are clicked. When I right click a link in the left frame and choose:
Hyperlink Properties -> Target Frame"
I don't see the right frame as one of my choices.

If I create a link in the body of the page (anywhere not inside the left or right frame) I see the two frames in the "Target Frame" box. So basically, when I'm creating a link in a frame it doesn't see the other frame as a possible target. How do I make them see each other?

I know this is probably a stupid question...
And I know I shouldn't even be using frames...
But can anyone help me out?

2/19/2009 1:25:03 AM

LOL Frontpage??? that shits still around? Download dreamweaver and save yourself

2/19/2009 1:42:37 AM

Quote :

"Frontpage Question "

Quote :

"For simplicity, let's say there are two frames"

http://www.w3schools.com/html/

2/19/2009 1:56:41 AM

i don't think you can without using javascript

http://www.codingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-34140.html

[Edited on February 19, 2009 at 8:13 AM. Reason : then again i don't know crap about iframes since i almost never use them]

2/19/2009 7:57:42 AM

^

2/19/2009 9:40:11 AM

Heh... Frontpage.

2/19/2009 10:14:20 AM

Meh...It's what I had on hand.

I guess I'll get rid of the left frame, align the content links on the left side of the page, and use the right frame as their target. Hopefully it'll work out.

2/19/2009 11:14:15 AM

i don't know how to help you with the frontpage issue...it's a crappy program that i can't believe it's still around

but if you just open the file in a text editor, you can manually point it to the frame...forget frontpage

2/19/2009 12:46:05 PM

I couldn't get that javascript to work, so I just did away with one of the frames. Set it up fairly simple with the company logo at the top, a menu bar lined up directly under it, and a single frame underneath that. The links in the menu bar point to the frame as their target. Came out fairly well and it's clean and simple.

Ooc, why do real web developers hate frames so much?

2/20/2009 12:47:41 PM

Welcome to 1996, FrontPage sucked then, and continues to suck today.

2/20/2009 12:53:33 PM

Quote :

"Ooc, why do real web developers hate frames so much?"

you need to give up on the idea of frames.
Presumably, the main reason you're using frames is to have a consistent header or navigation across all pages, then a portion of the page that changes depending on what link you click. This was an ok idea in the mid-90s before server-side scripting was widespread or better web editors were created, but this is just not a good idea anymore.

Your question of "why do developers hate frames so much" can be answered in two ways:
1) the reasons developers hate frames - there are a lot of reasons which I don't even feel like at all getting into (you could probably google "why frames suck" and find plenty), however, one off the top of my head is that frames hide the URL of the page you are viewing, and make direct linking to that page almost impossible. i.e. look at the Address Bar when you are on a site that uses frames for navigation, and the URL never changes. Therefore, if you want to send someone directly to a page on that site, you cannot send a complete URL to them.

2) more importantly than why frames suck is "what can we do now that is better than frames". i.e. Even if frames weren't so bad, there are a lot of other alternatives available now that are better than frames. Assuming you are using frames for the reasons above (to create a consistent header or navigation for the whole site) The two main ones are

A) server side scripting, like PHP, ASP, whatever. Using PHP, for example, you can create a file called header.php and maybe a sidebar.php as standalone files that contain the HTML for the header and sidebar. Then in the pages on the site, you "include" header and sidebar.php, and when someone views a page that "includes" another php file, the server automatically inserts the included file into the page before all the HTML is sent to the user's browser. This way, if you want to update the header, you just edit header.php and the change is propagated to all pages on the site the next time someone views them in a browser.

B) if you don't want to use server-side scripting (which has a learning curve, if you have no experience with coding or scripting) then editors like Dreamweaver and Frontpage offer templating options instead. In Frontpage, if you're intent on using it, you create a Template file, which will include your header, navigation, footer, etc, and then an "editable" portion of the page. Then when you want to create a new page, you make a new page based on the Template, and put your content into the editable portion of that template. Then, when you change the Template and save it, Frontpage will propagate the changes into all pages that are based on that Template. Then you have to re-upload all changed pages.

2/20/2009 1:31:38 PM

^ Good info. This was just helping a friend out and I think it'll be fine for his purposes. I had already decided to go with Dreamweaver if I ever do this again, but I'll keep your tips in mind and use templates next time.

2/20/2009 5:41:10 PM

^^Just to follow up, I have a nitpick with this. Your information is good general information for a beginner prone to misusing frames, but they aren't ALWAYS bad (specifically iframes).

Quote :

"Therefore, if you want to send someone directly to a page on that site, you cannot send a complete URL to them. "

This isn't true, but it does require DOM knowledge, and either client or server side scripting (generally both). There are a number of really well done iframe implementations that utilize this. Also, don't forget, in the AJAX world, it's impossible to do this WITHOUT having iframes (currently, html5 solves this to a large extent).

2/20/2009 6:40:27 PM