Who Uses "flames"?

[djdonny]

I was just wondering how many of you use frame layouts for your websites, or who design their entire sites in Dreamweaver/Flash.

I use frames on mine because I believe it makes for simpler navigation, especially when a navigation bar has a lot of choices to select from.

(See my web site Sound-Sensation.com for example.)

I don't use Flash, simply because I really like to be able to tweak the source code, but I know that Flash sites are usually, well, flashy. And since I bought Flash MX a few months ago, I may decide to play around with it more this summer.

But WHAT I DO KNOW, in both cases, is that Flash sites and sites with frames generally do not perform as well on search engine results. Has anyone had tremendous success with either of these types of sites with respect to FREE search placement? (And do you care to share your secrets?)

[Glen Millar]

I have not used Frames in like forever. I do use some minor Flash on one site for the header ( http://www.itechosting.com )

One site I have has a TON of links, but I use a Template to control the site characteristics. This site is over 1500 pages in size so using a Template is the best and fastest way to work the site. ( http://www.edmontonbride.com )

Frames are not as popular as they once were. But if executed properly on a site, they can add to it big time. Your site looks good djdonny. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

In regards to search engines and Frames, what I used to do was place the identical Meta Tags in EVERY frame. Worked for me. Maybe it will work for you too.

[djdonny]

Thanks Glen,

Your ITec site is fantastic and very professional, especially the dash of Flash you mentioned!

I also like your navigation bar in the Edm Bridal site, using a table with backgrounds for each cell and real text (not graphic text). Just curious as I viewed the source for the home page there -- any reason why you use different graphic files for each table cell (1.jpg, 2.jpg, ...) when they all appear the same?

[Glen Millar]

And Thank-you Donny [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

To answer your question. That was done to be able to manage and identify each link as there is sooo many of them. When I was doing the site I thought there would be like 10 or 12 areas/links...not the nearly 40 there actually is so numbering the links helps to identify them while editing the site.

Here is my plain Jane DJ site http://www.crystalmusicdj.com which I did in Frontpage. The other 2 sites were done in Dreamweaver. I have a number of other sites as well.

[JX2 Productions]

I use dreamweaver for my site. I utilize the frames, but so far I am having more headaches with using frames. Not sure how to get the page to auto resize so that i dont have to set my computer properties to 800x600 when designing it and the switch back to 1024x768.... I really like the frames idea because of the navigation and it overall, I believe, that it makes the site load faster overall. Once all the frames are loaded you dont have to keep reloading everything on the page if you were to keep a uniform title and nav bar throughout the whole site. I also use a small flash logo in the top frame of my site. I think it adds a little more character and makes it more "fun" to visit. I would really like to have an all flash site, and have started to work with it slowly... Check out my current site at : Jx2 Productions

Andrew Jensen

[djdonny]

Andrew,

I've seen your site and made a few recommendations. For one, I don't think the logo should take up so much of the screen (nice as it is), especially with all the empty space you leave on either side of it.

Also, the only way to have a frameset "resize" is by changing the measurements that you have in pixels (eg, 209 px for the top row) to percentages (eg 40%).

But, the real problem is that you can't squeeze more than can fit in a given space. If you want the page to display well in 800x600 screens, and you want (say) a 200 px left navigation frame, that leaves only 600 px width for the main frame. That means you can't place a 700 px wide photo or table in the 600 px wide space without getting scrollbars. Understand?

You don't have to literally change your screen to 800x600 when designing the pages, but you do have to create a pencil-and-paper layout with measurements and keep them in mind as you design each page that will fit in each frame.

Donny