Frames

What's so bad about frames

[gruntre]

I am only a beginner and have developed by web site with dreamweaver. It is a frame setup and I really like the way that it works. It is really easy to navigate and my customers give me good feed back about the site. I have heard that frames should be avoided and would like to know why?
I have a link to a site directory in the no frames tags for search engine indexing and message for people without frames capability. I also have a home link in every content page which reloads the frames and home page. My index.htm is a flash intro with a hidden link to the directory which redirects to my home page.

Am I missing anything really important?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[mjt_AG]

Here are the good and bad of using frames:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[gruntre]

Thanks, I have a lot to learn and I'm sure now that the frames will end up being ditched.

[victor]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with frames if you are building an application over which you have complete control over the technology (browsers etc) used to access it.

Many in-house applications built around a web interface use frames to good effect.

Where frames fall down is when you don't have that sort of control, and for the reasons listed in the other thread.

There can be some good reasons for having your site partially in frames -- such as stepping through the stages of checking out a full shopping cart.

[pleeker]

I'd also point you toward this recent thread that might help:

The controversy over frames [webmasterworld.com]

[bill]

Here's an old thread that helped me out quite a bit...Frames Suck ...why won't they listen? [webmasterworld.com]

[mack]

From a user point of view, the biggest problem with frames is...

You are searching and click on a serp result. The result takes you to a single frame from a frameset. You then might not have the navigation to continue using the site.

Mack.

[gruntre]

Thanks for the feed back guys. I'm learning so much reading this site and the thing I'm learning most is how little I know and how much there is to learn. I think I have to try and get my learning priorities straight 1st. It has also occurred to me that you don't need to post that many questions if you make use of the search facility.

Thanks again and Happy NEW YEAR to all!

[IeuanJ]

That feeling of needing to learn more never goes away :). After six years of web design i'm still learning every day, it is the nature of the beast.

[sidewalking]

This is a good topic for newbies, because some of the logic in well-designed frames is very good. The lack of control argument makes sense to me. Just because it looks good on one or two computers doesn't mean much when thousands of others don't render properly...

So, I have a question on this, then... Is there any type of alternative for navigation, other than using the same navigational images/bar in the same location on each page and maybe highlighting the color of the current page?

What alternatives do you recommend? If it is easier to give a URL than an explanation, that is cool, too...

Thanks,

Scott

[gruntre]

I must admit that after reading lots of the arguments for and against(most against) I sort of wamt to stay with my frame site for the time being just for the challange of making it as good as it can be!
There are 1 or 2 pro's on this forum who say they can work well if designed right. Even SEO