Should frames be used on a webpage?

Hey,

Recently I've been told that using frames on your webpage isn't really recommended anymore, because people don't like them. Now, personally, I've always loved frames. I get annoyed beyod belief when a menu scrolls away with the rest of the page and I have to hunt it down again to continue using a site, whereas with frames it's always just there, waiting for your interaction.

So what's the verdict? Are frames a no on web pages now?

Thanks.

It's not that people don't like them. It's that things like screen readers and search engines don't like them. Main reason being that it removes the natural flow from the docment. Frames have the largest effect on usability, as screen readers have been adapting slowly to the use of frames ( or at least the tech is getting better such that people can use it properly ).

When a search engine views a framed page, all it sees in the code is a reference to another document, with no text to be seen. Your browsers viewport does all the dirty work for you. But when it comes to a Search Engine or a screen reader, the website owner has to work for them.

Frames are troublesome for all the reasons 1beb outlined so eloquently above.

The solution is to convince everyone to use FireFox or other browsers which support position:fixed; and use that for your menus (a dream, I know).

Another CSS solution is to use fixed-height divs with overflow:auto on the content div, which will produce a vertical scrollbar for the content, keeping the links in view, much like a frame. There are a few foibles that come with that solution, such as doubled scrollbars in IE, etc. I'm sure there are fixes-I just haven't played with that enough to discover them.

Agreed, a lot of design styles would be soooo much easier if all browsers supported position:fixed;

Hey, thanks for all the useful information. Sorry it took a while to get back.

I've been told that I should look into CSS and div tags, so I'll give that a look.

Thanks again for your help.