|
Creating
a frames page in Microsoft Front Page
by Laverne E. Denyer
| To include frames in a web page, you must
treat the entire page as a set of frames. You cannot simply insert
an individual frame into a blank page in the same way that you insert a
table. |
| According to the "Help" menu, |
| * |
"A frames page is a special kind of HTML page that divides
the browser window into different areas called frames, each of which can
display a different page. When you click a hyperlink on a page displayed
in one frame, the page pointed to by that hyperlink can be displayed in
another frame. The frames page itself contains no visible
content: It's just a container that specifies which other pages to display
and how to display them." |
| * |
This means that each "frame" portion within the page you
see is actually a separate page inserted into the page you are using as
a web page. Each will save as a separate file, and will be automatically
brought up (opened) when you open your frame page. |
| There are a wide variety of ways that you
can use frames in a web page or web site. Again, according to the
"Help" menu, |
| * |
"Frames pages are often used for catalogs, lists of articles,
or any other kind of page where clicking a hyperlink in one frame displays
a page in another frame. Authors use frames pages because they contain
built-in navigation and present a consistent user interface (that is, the
structure and layout of frames)." |
To Top
| * |
The "right click" feature is a dos-based system command.
If you are using a MacIntosh based system, hold the single button
down until the menu appears. |
| * |
To save loading time, the illustrations are shown in "thumbnail"
format. To get a larger view, simply place the cursor on the desired
illustration and click your mouse button. |
To Top
| Select the
page's frame style |
| On the menu and pull-down menus, select the
following: |
|
File |
 |
|
Page |
|
|
New |
|
|
 |
| Then select the tab titled "Frames Page" |
|
 |
You will see several options for different
types of frames. Place the cursor over the top of a frame type and
the picture at the lower right (as in the illustration) will show
an example picture of the frames page for that layout. Select the
layout you prefer (either double click or click once
on the frame type and then on "open." One of the most common
and most versatile layouts is "Banner and Contents" as show in the picture.
It offers many options while not using excessive screen space for navigation
tools or other graphics. |
To Top
| Selecting
the Frames Layout |
|
 |
| When the page opens, it will show blank, grayed-out
frames, according to the style you selected. Each of the frames (grayed
block) will have two buttons in it: Set initial page, and New Page.
The New Page command will begin a blank page in that space. Clicking
on Set initial page will insert another page already on file in your system. |
|
 |
| The following is an example of the result
of selecting each of the two different buttons |
|
 |
| Generally, you will begin the first draft
of the page by selecting "New Page" since you probably won't have any other
page developed that would fit within your frames. |
| Then you can begin building your individual
frames within the overall web page. |
To Top
| Controlling
the Appearance of Frames. |
| You can control the appearance of the frames you create. |
| To see a table taken from the "Help" menu, click
here. |
To Top
| Start Building
the Individual Frames |
| Now you will begin developing the information
you want in each of the individual frames. For now, use the Banner
and Contents layout as shown in the example. |
| Using the Banner and Contents layout, you
begin with three frames: Banner, Content and Main. |
|
 |
| The best use of the Banner Frame is to develop
or use an already developed theme for your overall web site. If this page
is one of many, and not the first page seen when a visitor comes to your
site, you can use what you have already developed. However,
if you are using a frames page as your first page, or even your only page,
you will be developing a new format to use throughout your site.
A strong recommendation would be to use a "splash" page for a visitor's
entrance page rather than using a frames page as a first point of content.
A splash page is a simplified page that will provide a basic site map and
hyperlinks to the rest of your site. Remember, consistency of appearance
is important when developing a web site. |
| To begin this stage with a new page, click
on New Page for the Banner Frame. That will give you a plain white
background. Then select the same button for each of the other two
pages, providing plain white backgrounds for these as well. The illustration
shows how that will look. |
|
 |
To Top
| To
Use or Not To Use Slider Bars |
| Slider bars allow the visitor to scroll up-and-down
down or side-to-side within a frame to allow viewing of data not initially
shown within the frame. |
| You can determine whether or not to display
a slider bar in each frame. Generally the Banner Frame will not have
one, as this is a display frame for your site. The other two frames,
however may or may not use one according to the content and amount of data
included in that frame. |
|
 |
| You have multiple choices: "If Needed,"
"Never" and "Always." If the material in a particular frame will
be larger than the size of the frame, then you will want to select Always.
If you will be using a variety of items to display in this frame, you will
likely select If Needed. If the data will fit nicely within the space
allotted, select Never. Then click on "OK." Do this for each frame
on the page. |
To Top
|
 |
| Determine the desired background for each
frame, remembering to develop a unified "look" for the page and the web
site. |
| As you would with any other type of web page,
you will select the background of your choice for each frame. You
may leave it white or insert another background from a clipart or graphics
collection. |
To Top
| Using
the contents frame to display data in the main frame. |
| The "main" frame on the page can be used to
display data linked from another file. Especially when you may want
to display more than one file, the best way to do this is to create a list
of links as navigation tools in the "contents" page. As both of the
above examples show, the contents frame has a table within it with a list
of data links. |
| To begin the process, insert a table in the
contents page. It will generally have one column and as many rows
as you want different files to display. |
|
 |
| If you don't know just how many files you
will want to display, you could begin with a random number of rows, such
as five. Then you can adjust the final number as you progress with
the page design. |
| At this point, you will want to select the
type colors for the different components of this frame. To do this, |
|
* |
place the cursor over an empty space in the frame |
|
* |
right click the mouse |
|
* |
select "Page Properties" from the pop-up menu |
|
 |
|
* |
select the "Background" tab |
|
 |
|
* |
Select the color for each of the text components on the
web page |
|
 |
To Top
| Click on a cell within the table you just
created. Type a title to indicate the file you wish to display in
the main frame. Then highlight it with the mouse. |
|
 |
| With the data file still selected, click on
the "Insert" option in the page menu. Then select "hyperlink" from
the pull-down menu. |
|
 |
| In the pop-up menu, select the file you wish
to display. You can use one of three methods: type the name in the
text box, use the Internet browse option, or use your desktop browse option. |
|
 |
To Top
|
 |
Select the "Target Frame" icon to determine
where you want the file to display. You may select any of the following:
Page Default (Main), Same Frame, Whole Page, New Window or Parent Frame.
In most cases you will select the "Main" frame. You can select the
frame of choice by
either clicking on the title shown in the column to the right or click
on the desired frame in the picture of the page. |
|
 |
| Then click "OK." You have just created
a hyperlink and a location for the file you wish to display. |
To Top
|
 |
| On the tabs at the bottom left of the page
select "Preview" to see how the page looks. Then click on the link
you just created to see that everything works as intended. Make any
needed corrections. Then return to the "Normal" view. |
|
 |
| You may choose select to project a New Page
when the link is selected. In that case, In that case, a new screen
will appear containing the selected file. |
To Top
| Creating
Frames within Frames |
| You can create additional frames within the
frames on the template page. This can provide opportunities to display
multiple files or even create additional navigation tools |
| Click on the frame in which you wish to add
more frames. Then select the "frames" option on the top menu bar.
Then select the "split frames" feature on the drop-down feature. |
|
 |
| Select either columns or rows. This
will split the current cell into either two columns side by side, or two
rows one atop the other. |
|
 |
| The selected frame will then be split into
multiple frames. The resulting new frame will need to be formatted
in the same manner as the other frames. |
|
 |
|
 |
| You may now use this frame in any way you
wish. You may also resize the resulting frames to suit your needs. |
To Top
|
by Laverne E. Denyer
