the <noframes> tag

In my opinion, a lot of the debate about whether frames are very useful or a big pile of horse manure could be invalidated if only designers would remember the existence of the <noframes> tag and use it properly. After all, that's what it's there for.

The tag goes in the frameset document and its contents will be ignored by browsers that can display frames. On the other hand, the contents will be displayed by those browsers which for whatever reason, can't display frames. The idea is that you place some text in the tag which firstly explains that the page the user is trying to view uses frames and then, ideally, directs them to a "frameless" version of the page. So for the page in the virtual lecture, which has served throughout as the sample, the <noframes> tag was set up as follows:

<noframes>
<h3>Welcome to the Drew's Web Design Site</h3>
<p>This is a sample page for the lesson on frames. It uses frames, which your browser does not support. A frameless version of the page is available at <a href="ext_frameless.html">ext_frameless.html</a>.</p>
</noframes>

ext_framelesss.html - which you can view (whether frame-enabled or not) by following the link - is, as you'll see, just a version of that page rendered in the normal "template". OK, I could easily sort that out by simply following the pattern of the rest of this site, rather than having to redesign things completely. But, in the end, if you are designing your site with frames you do have a responsibility, somewhere along the line, to think about making it accessible to the greatest number of users. And that means proper use of the <noframes> tag and designing a non-frames version of the site. This doesn't have to be as all-singing, all-dancing as the framed version (or no-one'd use frames at all) - usually, the main text "window" rendered on its own is sufficient.

Trouble is, most people think of the <noframes> tag as an added annoyance, or a legacy from Web prehistory. But frameless web browsing is more common than you'd think - following hyperlinks from within Word documents, for instance, may fail if the page being linked to is framed. Those creating their pages in HTML editors almost always fail to include them, simply because the editors don't make it at all obvious how to produce the tag. But it isn't difficult, and like the alt attribute, is an oft-neglected courtesy that, by including it, adds far more to the usability of the site than would be expected from the effort expended. Nor can one forget the law about accessibility - and without <noframes>, your site is simply unusable by anyone using non-visual or text-only browsers.

In the example note the nesting of other tags within the noframes message, and also some description of the page content. This is to assist search engines in indexing your page: as discussed in the virtual lecture.

Back to the top

Back to the menu for lesson 10