Frames allow the screen to be divided into areas independent of each other, providing varied content even though they are similar. Frames are advantageous to include in the same window a fixed section that collects the elements to navigate through a complicated configuration of information.
The framed document is made up of a single file that contains the description of the areas in which the screen is divided. Together with the URL’s of the HTML documents, the described frames will be shown in each of the sections. These sections are identified because they have a name that can be used to refer to it from other documents. They can also change the size depending on the changes in the dimension of the browser window or as required by the user.
Viewing a document that has frames alters some aspects of the usual behavior of Internet users, so we must take the following into account.
- There is always an active frame on which the functions of reloading, printing, etc will be applied … Its edges are faintly highlighted. If we want to select it, we will only have to click with our mouse on it.
- Each of the sections will be printed individually as it does not allow printing together.
- If we press the back of the browser in a document with frames, we will go to the document that we have seen previously in any of the frames. Only some browsers will differentiate between a general back and a single frame one.
- Frames will be used when the information is explicitly applied to that structure. They can also be used on those occasions that we cannot find another means by which to achieve a presentation effect.