[iPod Nano]

OK. So I have decided to design a site for the radio station at my school by hand using bare HTML codes! I'm using my dad's site for the APT (Alliance of Parents and Teachers) as a template. I'm using frames and had a quick question! Tell me that they're old or out of style or are a bad way to do things, but people like my dad's site and I see nothing wrong with this.

My question: is the Window Title supposed to be the same for each page even though I have specified a separate title for each page? Thanks.

[louishen]

The window title in a framed site will be the title set for the framset page, regardless of what an individual page within a frame is called.

Frames are considered a bad way of doing sites, if you like hand coding then you can always redo the site in one of the many web editors like Dreamweaver, Coda or iWeb (just a few of your many options)

[iPod Nano]

Thanks, louishen. Why are frames considered bad? Everybody tells my dad that his site is very navigatable (sorry for spelling error -- couldn't seem to do it right) and most people who see it like it.

[vansmith]

I agree with louishen. Especially if your site is small, there is little need for frames. What kind of content are you putting up on this website?

[iPod Nano]

Perhaps there's no need, but what's bad about it? Is there any real reason not to use them, or is it just because no one does it?

[louishen]

It isn't bad per say (the site obviously works well enough) but is considered an old way of doing things and doesn't have the flexibility and elegance that a CSS based layout can provide.

But its up to you and your dad, if you are happy with the structure of the current site then stick with it, if you want to modernise it then consider using CSS

[vansmith]

Instead of summarizing it here, I lead you to this and this page. Some of these issues may not be of concern to you such as search engine indexing (well, maybe it is) but complexity in maintenance is something to consider. As well, #6 on the second page is important - bookmarking can become difficult with framed pages.

I know this doesn't really answer your question (and you acknowledge this in your first post) but it might be easier if you consider an alternative to frames. Especially if there isn't a lot of media content, frames are unnecessary given the speed of internet connections nowadays. Do you have a page up already? I'd be glad to give you some suggestion or hints based on what you have already.

[iPod Nano]

Thanks for the information. It's given me some stuff to think about. Let me address some of these issues you guys gave me.

CSS - we are using a rudimentary CSS style sheet to control the look of the navbar, the color of text and background, and the fonts used on the pages. Can you tell me/refer me to something that will help me learn to use CSS in a more sophisticated way instead of frames.

URL Problem - Yes I agree with that. I understand it can be a problem for some. However, every main page is in the navbar and can be viewed with ease. I don't think it will be such a bad thing to tell people to go to osaradio.org (it's not purchased or hosted yet--that's for later!) and click on the "Personalities" link or whatever page we want them to see. In fact. every page does have a URL, it's just that you have to view that page alone without the frames to see that.

Indexing - Google has found my dad's site, the Alliance and Parents and Teachers site for my school, and my piano teacher's site very well. All of these were designed by my dad using frames. I'm confident that this won't prove to be a huge problem.

Entry Page Problem - Yes. I'm aware of that. That's why every page has a "Home Page" link inside the main content. If a search engine finds this page by itself without the other frames, people have a link to click on to get to the rest of the site.

Maintenance - I'm not so sure I have a problem with that. I'm actually finding this very easy to create. It uploads better then sites I've created with RapidWeaver and iWeb and it takes up so much less space on the servers.

Thanks again.

@vansmith: I'm trying to FTP this to a temporary subdomain for you to look at. My hosting package is free so my pages are being cluttered by large ads. I'll try to find an alternative.

[god0fgod]

You must be able to change the title of the main frame by Javascript.

And I don't like frames either.

[iPod Nano]

I can change it with plain codes too. All you have to do is change the title of the index file.

[vansmith]

Originally Posted by iPod Nano

CSS - we are using a rudimentary CSS style sheet to control the look of the navbar, the color of text and background, and the fonts used on the pages. Can you tell me/refer me to something that will help me learn to use CSS in a more sophisticated way instead of frames.

This will be a good start. A lot of what I have learned from CSS has simply been through researching an issue when it comes up but to be fair, I am by no means a CSS pro. My adventures into web dev/design are recent.

Originally Posted by iPod Nano

@vansmith: I'm trying to FTP this to a temporary subdomain for you to look at. My hosting package is free so my pages are being cluttered by large ads. I'll try to find an alternative.

I've seen people use 110mb - looks quick and ad-free.

[iPod Nano]

Okay. I had forgotten I had gotten an account with them. I'll try to upload the stuff.

[iPod Nano]

110mb doesn't support FTP, and their stupid upload feature isn't the best. I found 125mb which does support FTP, but they want my personal info when I sigh up. Looks a little fishy to me. I shall continue my search for a reasonable subdomain!

[iPod Nano]

I have uploaded my site to 123bemyhost.com, but the index file is still the one that they put there as a place holder. Any suggestions?

[vansmith]

They must have an index file in your root directory as well. Delete any index files in your root directory aside from your own.