- #26. Generating a Frameset
- #27. Formatting Framesets
- #28. Defining Links Between Frames
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
#27. Formatting Framesets
Frameset attributes include whether or not to display borders between pages in the frameset, as well as the width and/or height of various frames within the frameset. Both attributes are defined in the Property inspector. The tricky part is selecting the entire frameset to access these features.
The easiest way to select an entire frameset is to view the Frames panel (Window > Frames). Click on the border that surrounds the entire Frames panel to select the frameset. The frameset will be selected in both the Frames panel and in the Document window. You can then easily select a frame by clicking on it in the Frames panel (Figure 27a).
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Figure 27a Selecting a frame using the Frames panel.
Often, framesets are formatted so that there is no visible border between frames in a browser window. The “page” appears to be a single page in a browser, even though it is in fact at least three pages.
By default, framesets generated using Dreamweaver’s page designs are formatted to display no border between frames. To add a border to a selected frame, choose a border color from the Border color swatch. Then choose Yes from the Borders pop-up menu in the Property inspector (Figure 27b).
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Figure 27b Defining a border for a frame in the Property inspector.
To define the widths (or heights) of frames within a selected frameset, use the RowCol Selection area in the Property inspector to click a row or column in your frameset. Then choose a value for the selected column or row in the Column Value or Row Value field. Values can be either fixed (in pixels) or a percent. Or, you can make a column width Relative, which means it will fill all space left over after columns with fixed widths are displayed (Figure 27c).
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Figure 27c Defining a frame that will fill all available space after fixed-width frames display.
You can define scroll attributes (whether or not to display scroll bars), as well as set resize permission (whether or not to allow a viewer to click and drag on the border between frames and resize them in his or her browser) for frames selected in the Frames panel.
Click a specific frame in the Frames panel. The Property inspector then makes settings available for scroll bar display in the Scroll pop-up menu. You can choose Yes (always display a scrollbar), No (never display a scrollbar), Auto (display a scroll bar only as needed), or Default (whatever a browser defaults to). You can enable viewer resizing of frames by deselecting the No resize check box (Figure 27d).
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Figure 27d Enabling a scroll bar (only as needed) for a selected frame.