HTML Frame Templates

Using HTML Frame Templates

Some people prefer not to use frames in their web design strategy, but others find them to be quite useful. When deciding whether or not using frames is a good idea for your site, pay close attention to whether they provide for user friendly navigation within your particular site's design.

Benefits of Frames

Depending on the nature of your site, frames can make your website easier for users to understand and navigate. When you use frames, the navigation bar can remain the same no matter how large the website is. This can be particularly helpful for sites that have quite a few pages.

Using frames allows you to display multiple HTML documents on the screen at the same time. Users are able to navigate each document separately, which can be very beneficial. Many web designers use frames when they need to keep one set of text static on the page, while allowing users to move freely around a different text file.

Drawbacks of Frames

One reason many developers tend to shy away from using frames is that browsers have not always been able to display them properly. Many of the older browsers had issues with frames, so users who have not updated their browser in more than a few years might not be able to view your site properly if it contains frames.

From a user perspective, one of the difficulties with frames is that it isn't possible to accurately bookmark a page that contains frames. Since each frame doesn’t have its own URL, users can only bookmark the index page. If the site only has a few pages, this isn't much of a problem. However, if a website has a large number of pages, it may be difficult for users to go back to information they'd like to see again if it is in frames.

Printing frames can also pose a difficulty. If you're using frames in your website, it's a good idea to include links that allow users to choose printer-friendly pages if the information is something they are likely to want to have in a hard copy form.

Finding HTML Frame Template

You don't have to create your own HTML frames from scratch. There are a number of resources where you can find HTML frame templates to download from the Internet.

A few places you can find web frame templates to use are:

• Create a Free Website offers a free frames template kit that allows users to easily set up a five page frame-based website without being knowledgeable about web development or design.

• Free Site Templates has a nice selection of frames that webmasters can download and use in their website design projects.

• TechnoRealm Web Design provides several frameset templates available for free download.

• San Diego State University's WebQuest tutorial includes several website templates, with and without HTML frames, that can be downloaded for use.

• Visit Free Webmaster Tools for a list of [[Free Web Design Tools|free web design tools] including templates for download, instructions on creating fake frames, and an easy frame creator application.

• The Web Standards Project has code for a conforming frameset template that anyone can download and use.

Learning to Use HTML Frames in Web Design

If you're interested in using frames on your website, the free tutorials available on the HTML Goodies website can provide you with a great deal of information. There are also several excellent HTML frames tutorials available on the Iron Spider web design resource center website. Another excellent resource for learning more about working with frames is Manda.com.