How is this done?

A fixed menu on the top of the page

[Familyman501]

I am trying to create a fixed menu at the top of the page where I'll have several links to other pages. The links are to open the pages and the fixed menu stays where it is.

<snip>

When I attempt to look at the source code of the fixed menu, I see only the source code of the lower page.

How is this best done?

[edited by: trillianjedi at 8:14 pm (utc) on Feb. 23, 2006]
[edit reason] No URL's please - thanks. [/edit]

[LifeinAsia]

Does the site use frames?

[Familyman501]

I know nothing about frames.

I thought it wasn't a great idea to use frames. If not, then I'd rather do it without.

Is that what they have used to achieve it?

[LifeinAsia]

Many people do things that aren't a good idea.

I have no idea if that site is doing it or not. It just sounds like it may be frames from your description.

[Demaestro]

It does sound like frames. You can tell by right clicking in the window and if you get menu options like 'Frame' Or 'This Frame' Then yes they are using frames. You can view the fram source by right clicking, selecting 'frame', and then 'view frames source'

It is not a the best way of doing things but it isn't always wrong either.

[Familyman501]

Well that worked! Right click and now I can see the source code. Thanks.

I want this functionality. What's the deal with frames? Some people hate them apparently.

Is there an alternative?

[Demaestro]

In a mild setting they can be ok, like for a persitant nav. Where it gets nasty is when you have frames sets within frame sets. Also you have to pass the traget="_top" to the links to send a user out of the frame.

It also used to be that you would leave a site that had fromaes and one frame would stay with you until you closed your browser and reopened it. Very annoying, however I think that was netscape 4.1 days, which are long gone.

It isn't wrong to do what you are thinking in frames. Just try to keep it to one. I meant he site you are looking at for an example did it and you didn't notice, I am sure if done right no one will notice your frame either.

[LifeinAsia]

OK, let's say you make a page a.html with a frameset: b.html as a navigation frame and c.html with main content page 1. Using the navigation, you can also change the content frame to d.html that is main content page 2.

One of the main problems with frames is that people will not be able to bookmark a specific page of your site. Someone comes to your site at a.html then navigates to d.html. They bookmark the site, but the bookmark is a.html. So then they go back to the bookmark, they don't get the page they were expecting- bad user experience.

Another main problem is that when the pages get picked up by the search engines, then will probably be linking to the individual frames. A user finds your site on Google and links to page c.html. But c.html doesn't have any navigation links (because they're all in b.html), so the user thinks you have just a 1 page site- another bad user experience.

Both pitfalls can be avoided with workarounds. But the workarounds often require more work than just making non-framed pages in the first place.

[jomaxx]

IMO it would be a mistake to use frames. Nothing good can come of this. There are CSS/Javascript workarounds that can achieve the same effect, but you should test your site on a pretty wide range of browsers and versions if you want to go this route.

[celgins]

I would never suggest using frames unless you are designing an intranet where the framing is beneficial for end-users.

But for search engines? Not the best idea.