**Author:**  [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-question/213801/1 "2003-11-17T23:32:12Z")
kay this has me stumped. Here I sit with a copy of the idiots guide to html , plus a reference book called teach yourself html.
Now what I am stumped on is that I want to have a framed website with two panels , one on the left that takes up about 15% ,being the navigation bar and the rest on the right being the content.
So far everything is hunkdory , but for some reason I cant get some of the pages to open up into the right hand panel. I have my email , plus message boards that open up into another browser window , via target="\_blank" but the others I cannot for whatever reason seem to get them to target correctly.
What should I be looking for.
Website is
www.manticore.ca
for anyone that wants to look at the source code.
Declan
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**Author:**  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-question/213801/2 "2003-11-17T23:39:32Z")
Okay, here’s your A tag:
\forum\
First off, change that “url” to an “http”. But that’s not what you’re asking about.
The name of your content frame is “content”. So instead of:
target="\_blank"
use
target=“content”
Make sense?
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**Author:**  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-question/213801/3 "2003-11-18T00:44:53Z")
Just my opinion, but is _anyone_ still using Frames on new websites, here in 2003?
I thought the disadvantages of Frames were pretty clear back around 1995, and professional web designers started moving away from them around that time. Wasn’t it around then that they were listed as one of the “Top Ten Mistakes of Web Design”?
I’d sure look at doing your website without using Frames.
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**Author:**  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-question/213801/4 "2003-11-18T00:58:24Z")
Go back to square one.
1. You need one frameset with two frames. You code shows an opening for two framesets and four frames. You do not have consistent opening and closing tags.
2. You should only have two frame names. Call the navigation frame, “navigation” and the content frame, “content.”
3. For your navigation links, make sure they all have this attribute: target=“content”
As previously mentioned, don’t use frames. Not only can they be a PITA to maintain properly, but they cause problems for typical users. They are also “old” technology.
Try creating your web site entirely of CSS. You can accomplish the same concept as you are trying to achieve with frames. However, the code will be cleaner and tighter, it will not be old technology and you will be close to cutting edge.
Go to [http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/](http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/) for some excellent examples. However, use a standards-compliant browser such as Mozilla or Opera.
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**Author:**  [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-question/213801/5 "2003-11-18T01:10:29Z")
That was perfect thanks all , for some reason that underscore was what was screwing me up , tommorow I look at that problem with the 2 framesets 4 windows , to clean that up.
T-bonham, for what its worth I always liked the look of that design , so thats why I went for it , its really my first one and its a hobby site so its no biggie for using “old tech” ,lol
Declan
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**Author:**  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-question/213801/6 "2003-11-18T01:19:57Z")
My first webpage used frames. I wouldn’t recommend anyone actually _visit_ a webpage designed like that, but I don’t feel ashamed of it. I don’t think it’s so bad if you’re just learning; layout is one of the hardest things (I think) to get, and frames are a bit easier than CSS layout. However, I agree that you should eventually learn to do everything you can with frames without frames.