On a web page, framing means that a website can be organized into frames. Each frame displays a different HTML document. Headers and sidebar menus do not move when the content frame is scrolled up and down. For developers frames can also be convenient. For example, if an item needs to be added to the sidebar menu, only one file needs to be changed, whereas each individual page on a non-frameset website would have to be edited if the sidebar menu appeared on all of them. However, server-side includes and scripting languages such as PHP can also be used to accomplish this aim without some of the drawbacks of frames such as confusing the operation of the address bar and back and forward buttons.

Chief criticism of the practice of framing HTML content includes:

• Framing breaks the link between content and a URL, making it difficult to link to or bookmark a particular item of content within the frameset.
• The implementation of frames is inconsistent across different browsers.
• Framing confuses the boundaries between content on different servers, which raises issues of copyright infringement.
• Visitors arriving from search engines may land on a page intended for display in a frame, which often has no navigation.
• Frames change the behavior of the back button.
• Frames usually don’t print the way users expect they will.
• External links on web pages which use frames may cause other pages to appear in the frameset.
• If the screen resolution or browser window size is too low then each frame will have scroll bars which can look messy and uses up already limited space.

admin Terms and Definitions, Website Design Framesets