Platinum Edition Using HTML 4, XML, and Java 1.2
(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)
Author(s): Eric Ladd
ISBN: 078971759x
Publication Date: 11/01/98

	Holding the Ctrl key while moving borders enables you to create new frames. Dragging the borders without holding the Ctrl key simply moves the borders.

When you create frames in PageMill, several files are actually constructed. The base document, which starts out as a blank page, contains the frameset. This file describes the names of the different frames, as well as their sizes and other attributes. The HTML code used to populate the different frames named in your frameset is stored in various other files. Opening the frameset file in PageMill launches the entire suite of frames. In contrast, opening the HTML source code for one of the frames merely brings up the frame contents in an isolated PageMill window.

You can select frames in your PageMill document by clicking their contents. When selected, the frame borders are highlighted. You save the content in a single frame by selecting it and saving it individually. If you resize any of the frames, you are prompted to save the frameset. PageMill arbitrarily assigns names to the individual frames; when saving the frame HTML, PageMill creates filenames with the frame name appended with an HTML suffix.

	PageMill enables you to individually save frames, to save the frameset, or, most usefully, to save the entire set of frames. Located under the File menu you will see the Frameset, Save Everything command, which saves the individual frame HTML as well as the frameset in the proper files.

To modify your frames, you might want to use the utility called the PageMill Attributes Inspector. As described in the last chapter, the Inspector enables you to specify the attributes for objects (tables, graphics, and so on), forms, frames, and pages, with each attribute set arranged on a different tab. To access the Inspector, press F8 or select Show Inspector from the View menu. The Frame tab is one of four major tabs available in the Attributes Inspector.

As depicted in Figure 7.17, the Frame tab enables you to modify attributes of the individual frames. Simply select one of the frames in the frameset and activate the Inspector.

FIGURE 7.17  It’s easy to modify a series of frames using the PageMill Inspector.

Notice that you can change the names of the different frames to something that is perhaps more meaningful than the name Assigned by PageMill. This can help you to keep better track of the nature of the content in each frame. Furthermore, the width of the frame can be changed or expressed using different bases; you can express the frame width as

•  A percentage of the browser window width

•  A set number of pixels

•  Relative to other frames in the frameset

Notice in Figure 7.17 that you can also set the height and width of the frame margins. Furthermore, you can specify whether the frames will contain margins and if the user will have the ability to manually resize the frame.

Naturally, you want to set up hypertext links between your different frame documents. This is accomplished by assigning targets to the links described in different frames. PageMill has a special function that aids in assigning targets to your individual URLs.

Triple-click a link to select it; then right-click the link after it’s selected. A box appears that gives you a variety of choices from which you can send pages corresponding to the link. You can do the following:

•  Open the link in the default frame

•  Open the link in a new window

•  Open the link in the parent window

•  Open the link in the same frame

•  Open the link in the same window

You might notice a map at the bottom of the pop-up box that mimics the structure of the open frameset document. You can also drag the mouse pointer over to one of the representative frames in the pop-up image to denote a target frame for a given link.