Benefits and Drawbacks

In theory, frames aim to make visitor navigation easier. In reality, however, things may be different. An inexperienced Web designer can easily overuse frames and create a site that makes it difficult or impossible for the visitor to find his way round.

At the beginning, frames on the Web were a source of numerous problems. For instance, there were no methods available for hiding their separating borders. So the browser window, which already offered only limited space, was full of grey borders and scrollbars. You can easily understand why visitors could not always appreciate this technique. This is one of the reasons why frames had a bad reputation. Today, the separating borders of frames can be masked. And despite the fact that most arguments against them are no longer valid today, there are still strong reservations against their use.

Also, if it is very important that visitors can print one or several pages of your site, it is advisable not to use frames. Indeed, a frame will print if it is active (i.e. if it is the last frame clicked on by the user). If it is another frame that is active, its content will be printed. Besides, adding a frame to your bookmarks or favourites can also be a problem: the bookmark will point to the frameset (the tray itself) and not to the desired content.

So is it advisable to use frames? If printing, security and bookmarks are not essential issues to you, you can definitely use them on your site. They will even make navigation much easier. But whatever decision you take, be prepared for opposite opinions: visitors either love or hate frames, there is nothing in between.