Frames in websites - totally unacceptable these days?

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Frames in websites - totally unacceptable these days?

10 posts & 9 voices | Started 2 years ago by konabunny | Latest reply from konabunny

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konabunny - Member

Hello people

I am building a simple website for a friend's new business. It's supposed to be a stopgap until they can earn a little money and get a "real" one built by a pro. So apologies in advance for sounding like an amateur - I am one and my friend recognises they'll have to spend good money soon! It's more or less an "online leaflet" i.e. an information resources with only static information, no online shop, no interaction, no need to update it daily, no blogs, no streaming, no nothing!

I was hoping to cannibalise some old code for a website I built ages (10 years?) ago which uses frames. All HTML apart from a tiny bit of javascript for mouseover menus. In essence, navigation in a left hand column, and the content on the remaining column on the right.

However, I've hit two speed bumps:

1) When I click on the link in the left hand navigation column, I can't get the right hand column to change i.e. it just brings the link up in the left hand column which I want to remain static. I am sure I will work this one out with enough buggering around though.

2) I've seen a whole bunch of people saying that using frames is more or less like using a telex or a wind-up gramophone: only a few people can access them and they're embarrassing obsolete. Is that true or can we get away with it for 6 months or so?

PS I have resisted the temptation to include webring gifs, dancing babies, scrolling text, flashing text, pop-up buttons that say "welcome to my homepage" etc...so far.

Posted 2 years ago #
M6TTF - Member

IMO I'd avoid - better ways of doing it these days and loads of templates you can cannabilise on the web

Posted 2 years ago #
pixelmix - Member

Definitely avoid frames. It will look very dated and anything that could be done with frames can be done more nicely with CSS stylesheets. I'm no web designer, and have only taught myself what I know, but have a look at http://www.dhkk.co.uk or http://www.blocksoft.net for what I have done with a simple css style sheet.

Let me know if you fancy a bit of a help.

PS, if you are sticking with frames, you can sort the problem in 1 by looking at your "target". You should be assigning a name to the right frame and the link in the left frame should point to the right one.

Posted 2 years ago #
HTTP404 - Member

think you need to read up on cascading style sheets (CSS)

Posted 2 years ago #
wwaswas - Member

my view is that it depends what market they're in.

If they're dealign with technically savvy people or are in a marketplace where web presence is important then do a 'proper' job.

If it's 'just' a garden centre or somethign then, tbh, people will be more interested in the content than how it's presented.

The big issue with frames is that they restrict how the site can be accessed and it'll look 'funny' in some browsers/devices. It could, dependign on design, also fall foul of accessability requirements if someone wants to complain.

Posted 2 years ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

Forget the old frames template and just build a Wordpress (or similar) site for the short term.

Posted 2 years ago #
hoodoo - Member

Definitely persist in using CSS. Bit of a learning curve (as always) but the benefits are huge.

If you need a HTML/CSS editor then try Kompozer. It's free and WYSIWYG.

Posted 2 years ago #
muddy_bum - Member

HTML CSS tutorials
CSS always better than frames and its not too hard to learn.

Posted 2 years ago #
paulrockliffe - Member

Zikula is your friend here I suspect....

Posted 2 years ago #
konabunny - Member

Hi guys

Thank you all for your kind advice. The wisdom, experience and thoughtfulness of the STW massive has shown through in the good counsel. In the best STW tradition, I'm going to ignore it and plough on regardless!

Well, for the moment anyway. The priority right now is to get something - anything - up there within the next few days. I just don't have the time (let alone the skills) to learn CSS and my experience hackifying a blog template didn't go well. I am sure others could make it look great. Like wwaswas said, it's something like a garden centre - people are not expecting flashy or pretty, just basic information.

The competition's websites are just as awful. That, together with my now firm understanding of the limitations of frames, means that I'll be seriously encouraging the owner to spend some good money on a good website ASAP!

Thanks again for your help - it really did help clarify the problem even if it looks like I'm being bullheaded (I am the type that uses gaffa tape to fix most things).

Posted 2 years ago #