Framed Navbars can also use any of the navigation methods and have the major advantage of being part of a second whole document, that is not reloaded to display the content, which only appears in the other framed window. This uses the targeting method that allows a link in the navbar frame window to load a new document into another window, usually beside above or beneath it in the browser's window. Frames are not supported or useful with a few old browsers or systems with small screens, and have other javascript-write bugs that interfere with the normal use of forward and back buttons of some newer browsers. This page could have used the framed system but used tables instead to allow the graphics to be stuck together properly.

Even though the borders around frames can be hidden, they can complicate a pages optical graphic alignment, making it difficult or impossible to stitch smooth flowing graphics like those on this page together without misalignments, spaces or extra scroll bars showing up if the browser cannot show the full intended size of the page. The powerful convenience of the frame system, is that you only need one or just one set of navigation bars which is/are shared by all the other documents, thus easing update maintenance! Framed navbars can also more easily be customized, reloading expanded versions of themselves to open subsections of your site, and can use graphical directory tree-like images, which would otherwise slow down your site if needed for every page. Java can also be used to enhance this system (next page).

If you will offer a very large site with many different areas, frames are the most universal preferred method, since they also reduce the size of all of your documents which would each have to include most of the navigation links otherwise. This speeds up presentation immensely and also reduces bandwidth.

Browser detection, and two separate versions with a plain and enhanced version of your site areas are required to allow the majority of visitors to enjoy your site if scripting is to be used, but not usually for frames. Many sites offer a plain or framed version of their site to be chosen by the user at their front door, which is primarily useful for users of primative browsers or computer equipment only capable of tiny screen sizes.

Continued...