A frameset divides up a page into independent scrollable regions that can each contain a separate web page. Authors can cause documents to be loaded into individual frames regions by using a special “TARGET” attribute that can be attached to most kinds of links. Previous versions of FrontPage included a separate Frames Wizard for creating and editing HTML framesets. In FrontPage 98, frames documents can be edited in-place directly with the FrontPage Editor.
Frameset templates can be easily created by end-users. In the FrontPage Editor, create a frameset layout, choose the “Save As” item on the File menu, and then click on the “As Template” button. Fill in the information, press OK, and a complete frameset template is automatically created.
The FrontPage Editor allows authors to choose among several frameset templates when creating new pages. These templates are stored in the FrontPage “frames” directory (c:\Program Files\Microsoft FrontPage\frames\ by default).
The structure of the frameset template directories mirrors the structure of the page and web template directories. Each frameset template has a “.tem” extension, and contains an INF file and an HTML file. The INF file contains a special key called “layout” that fully specifies the frameset geometry:
[info]
title=name of frameset as it will appear in the New Page dialog
description=long description of the purpose of the frameset
layout=specification of frameset geometry using compact notation
The main purpose of the layout string is to display a miniature preview of the frameset alongside the frameset’s title and description strings in the FrontPage Editor’s New Page dialog. The following is a sample frameset layout specification:
layout=[R(15%,85%)F("banner",[C(35%,65%)F("contents","main")])]Framesets can be recursive (frameset within framesets). Each frameset, including the topmost frameset, is surrounded by square brackets [like these]. Inside the frameset is a row and/or column specification followed by a list of frames. A row specification is an “R” followed by a comma-separated list of row sizes in parentheses (like these), where each entry is expressed as a percentage of the total available height. The column specification is the same format as the row specification, but with an initial “C”. The frame list is an “F” followed by a comma-separated list, where each item is either a frame name (inside double quotes) or a full frameset specification (inside square brackets).
The sample layout string above can be decoded as follows. The frameset consists of two rows, a short one at 15% of the window height and a long one at 85% of the height. A frame called “banner” is assigned to the short row. The long row contains another frameset, this one divided into two columns of 1/3 and 2/3 of the window width. This interior frameset is composed of two frames, the first called “contents” (which is assigned to the leftmost third) and the second called “main” (which is assigned to the rightmost two-thirds).