Frameset

End Tag: Required
Support Key: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3A1 | M3B2* | N2 | O2.1
What is it?
Attributes
Tag Example
Parent/Content Model
Tips & Tricks
Browser Peculiarities
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What is it?
This element represents the meta structure of a document using frames. By replacing the BODY element in the document structure, the FRAMESET element defines the document layout in terms of areas of the screen containing sub-document URLs (the frame content.)

Each FRAMESET element can consist of a ROWS attribute, a COLS attribute, or both. The ROWS attribute indicates that the sub-area is to be divided in to horizontal document "stripes", while the COLS attribute defines vertical display areas. Using both attributes in a single FRAMESET creates a grid of sub document areas.

If no ROWS or COLS attributes are present in a FRAMESET element, it is interpreted as a single row arbitrarily sized to fit the current window. If BOTH ROWS and COLS have been specified, sub-document definitions are distributed left-to-right, top-to-bottom. of the frame layout. Nested FRAMESET structures occur in place of where a corresponding FRAME definition statement would appear.

Note: The * character used below in the ROWS and COLS attributes deserves some explanation, as its use in this situation is unique in HTML. By itself, the * character specifies that any remaining frame width be devoted to the current frame. If there are multiple frames in the ROWS/COLS specification that have the * character, remaining space will be divided evenly between them. If the * character is preceded by an integer (N), that frame will receive N times as much of the remaining relative sized space as it would without the N prefix.

Common Attributes
%Core%
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE4B1 | M | N | O
%Events%
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3B1 | M | N2B3 | O
%Language%
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE4 | M | N | O

Specific Attributes
Border
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE4B1 | M | N3B5 | O2.1
Required? No
Description:
This attribute is used in the outermost FRAMESET tag to globally set the border thickness for all frames within the FRAMESET.
Values:
Positive integers representing the pixel space between frames. If BORDER=0 is used, it implicitly sets FRAMEBORDER to No.
BorderColor
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE4B2 | M | N3B5 | O
Required? No
Description:
When this attribute is used in the FRAMESET tag, it attempts to set the colors of all borders for all frames in the frameset. This can be overridden on a frame-by-frame basis in the FRAME tag.
Values: Either an RGB triplet or a special Color name.
Cols
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3A1 | M3B2 | N2 | O2.1
Required? No
Description:
This attribute specifies that the current window will be sub-divided into columns (vertical bands of framed content.) Values to this attribute are separated by commas, and represent the horizontal widths of the resultant separate child frames in the current parent frameset. In theory, all values listed should account for, or sum up to, the full parent frame size. It is possible to abuse this, because the three types of values can be freely intermixed.
Values:
Specified in pixels, a percentage of parent frame width (%) or in a dynamic relative sizing attribute specified by the use of the * character.
FrameBorder
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3A1 | M | N3B5 | O
Required? No
Description:
This attribute gives the author the option of whether or not to have borders around all the frames in the FRAMESET. This value can be overridden locally at the FRAME level.
Values:
    Netscape lists values for this attribute as Yes [DEFAULT] and No.
    Internet Explorer lists values of 1 [default] and 0 [display no border.]
FrameSpacing
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3A1 | M | N | O
Required? No
Description:
This attribute gives the author the option of whether or not to have borders around all the frames in the FRAMESET. This value can be overridden locally at the FRAME level.
Values:
Positive integers representing the pixel space between frames.
Rows
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE3A1 | M3B2 | N2 | O2.1
Required? No
Description:
This attribute specifies that the current window will be sub-divided into rows (horizontal bands of framed content.) Values to this attribute are separated by commas, and represent the vertical height of the resultant separate child frames in the current parent frameset. In theory, all values listed should account for, or sum up to, the full parent frame size. It is possible to abuse this, because the three types of values can be freely intermixed.
Values:
Specified in pixels, a percentage of parent frame height (%) or in a dynamic relative sizing attribute specified by the use of the * character.
Example
<html>
<head>
    <title>Frames Example</title>
</head>
<frameset ROWS="20,25%,*">
    <frame SRC="frame1.html" NAME="frame1">
    <frame SRC="frame2.html" NAME="frame2">
    <frameset COLS="30%,*">
         <frame SRC="frame3.html" NAME="frame3">
         <frame SRC="frame4.html" NAME="frame4">
    </frameset>
<noframes>
    <body>
        This text will appear only if the browser does not support frames.
    </body>
</noframes>
</frameset>
</html>
Parent Model
<frameset> | <html>
Content Model
<frame> | <frameset> | <noframes>
Tips & Tricks Browser Peculiarities
Boring Copyright Stuff...