Website design and hosting UK: Layout

This page is really three separate pages: The header, the side bar and the main content. It demonstrates the principle of frames which is most often used where the main content can change but the header and side (usually navigation) bar remain constant
When frames first hit web design they quickly became very popular as a means of forcing layout and presentational design. Latterly they have become less popular, partly because style sheets provide a better presentational tool, but mainly because it is realised that they make it much more difficult for search engines to index the dependant pages.

Having said that, good web designers like us can overcome this difficulty to some extent.

Another disadvantage relates to book marking. When a visitor wants to return to a page later, they often “bookmark” it, when they return the surrounding frames are not displayed and site navigation compromised. We can script round this problem but if your site does not need frames, why use them.

The main advantage of frames is that any amount of content will not push the header or navigation bar off the screen, but rather scrolls independently as does this page. (We have placed filler on this page so as to demonstrate this).
Also any changes to the header or navigation involve only changing the code on one page, saving work and ensuring consistency.

As an aside - frames can create another problem even if your site does not use them: If another site links to yours then your page may well display in their frame, at best spoiling your design or, at worst, implying your unauthorised endorsement of their organisation. If your site uses frames then the user ends up with frames within frames which is totally confusing. You cannot prevent them linking to you but we always script your pages to “burst” out of frames and display over the top of any other content.

Filler