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About frames

A web page designed with frames displays different content in different regions of a web browser. This design is typically used to display content that doesn’t change, such as a navigation bar, in one area and content that changes in the main content area.

For example, a web page might have one narrow frame on the left side that contains navigation links, one frame along the top that contains the logo and title of the website, and one large frame that takes up the rest of the page and displays the main content.


Web page with three frames: title and logo frame, main content frame and navigation frame

A page that contains frames is called a frameset. A frameset is an individual file that defines the layout and properties of all the frames on a page, including the number of frames, the size and placement of the frames, and the web address (URL) of the page that initially appears in each frame.

A frame is an organizational element of a frameset page. It’s easy to think of the page that’s currently displayed in a frame as an integral part of the frame, but each frame is just a container for a page. Pages that initially load in the frames are referenced by the frameset, but any page can be loaded in a frame.

The content that appears in each frame is saved in separate files. A page with three frames--navigation, logo, and main content--actually has four files: the frameset and three web pages, one for each frame. When a website visitor clicks a link in one frame, a new page can be loaded in another frame. There can be a different page for each link in a frame.

A frame can load pages from the same or different websites. So you might be able to edit content in some, but not all, frames.


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