Web Design & Development

As you read Lemay, you'll notice that it takes several pages plus the frameset page to create one viewable page on the web. But from that point, each new page can be set to load in the main window. If you want to view the frameset code, use View Source. If you want to view the code for a portion of the frame, right-click on that section and view page source.

There is a lot of controversy about frames vs. tables. Is it better to create a frameset and one navigation bar, or have to copy a table with the navigation onto each page? Does the use of a frame reduce the size of the working window? Do users follow the navigation of a frame or do they get lost? Is maintaining the site easier with frames or not? And a frame designer must ensure that a frame doesn't load within a frame, thus reducing visibility even more. We will do no more work with frames in this course, but you should be aware of them as you "surf" the net. You'll be dealing with, and using, frames in the next course.

Magic Target Names(p381)
The only one we need to look at is the target="_blank" attribute. If you include this attribute in an <a> tag the browser will open a new window to display the page. This would allow, for example, the full- sized version of a photo to fill the screen (and not be a part of a frame) when a thumbnail is clicked. On a PC, have you ever noticed a new window title appear in the bottom of the screen? This came from the target="_blank" attribute. When you View Source, this is what happens -- the browser opens a new window in which to display the source. Then all you have to do is close the new window to return to the page you were viewing.

A possible problem is that some viewers get confused, wondering why they can't go "back" to the previous screen. They don't realize that they simply need to close the current window. I sometimes include some instruction with this tag to let the visitor know what's happening (I did this in Lesson 8).

Keep this lesson simple! Just add the target="_blank" attribute to one (or more) of your existing external links. That's it! By the way, it's generally better not to use the target="_blank" attribute on a link within a site. You can end up with all of your pages being displayed at the same time -- confusing! You may, though, have a page of information that relates very directly to a major page of the site. Then you might want to use the target="_blank" for an internal link. As an example: see what I did with the "example" and "additional instructions" from Lesson 7 and Lesson 8.