If you keep the frames-based layout and go with a frameset DTD for the frameset and a Strict DTD for the framed documents, you'll run into these problems: 1. IE will create an horizontal scrollbar in your top frame. The fix for this is to use "scrolling=yes" (I know it's weird). 2. To use "target" with a Strict DTD, you'll have to extend the DTD or the markup will not validate, but doing so - in my experience - will make your CSS fails validation (I know it's weird). You could use the DOM to plug the target attribute where needed, but I don't think you want your navigation to rely on JS. You could also try "base target=" if all your anchors target the same frame (I guess that would pass the Validator).
I would dump the frameset and go with flat pages. That would have the other advantage of removing one of the 2 vertical scrollbars. Regards, Thierry | www.TJKDesign.com Isabel Santos wrote: > Ok, maybe I'm being lazy, I'm googling for a good tutorial or > exemples on the subject, and all I find is theory, so here it goes: > I recently got a job as a web designer in a company whose site has > previous decades markup. > Apart from that I do all the companys graphic work, so time is short. > The site has a ancient php seach engine, with a quite large data > base, and the rest seams more like php output saved by the browser. > It has tags for marqees, atributes like blink, links inside a flash > movie, lots of heavy animated gifs, a script running at the status > bar, an interface completly unrecomended for epileptic users well, I > think you can imagine, or visit it at: > http://www.ocean-wings.com/ > The site is updated every day, since new models como in all the > time, and has a quite large and loyal audience, wich by the stats > includes users with FF, IE 5 to 6, IE ad Safari on mac (actually not > bad at all). The updates are made directly on the markup, update > dates are written by hand and the data base is updated separatly, so > not only the error risk is significant, but also tasks are > unnecessarilly repeated. Such a heavy site is running on frames > witch makes all the sense, and some deeper links use the target > attribute. I intend to rewrite the site completly to simplify the > updating tasks and to make the site faster, more relyable, usable and > accessible. > I also intend to do in in standards mode. > The company intends to keep the look and feel of the site, for it has > already a very good emotional boundage with the users, so layout > changes should be minimum, only to permit some features they intend > to offer, like automatic alerts on updated items for subscription > users. Since time is a short resource, my idea is to do it in two > fases, in my spare time: > First rewriting the site as a template in decent code, then turning > it into php buiding a new database and using the template as an > output container. So now I'm looking for a doctype I can use to > include a frameset and target attributes in xhtml strict mode (not > only to trigger standards mode, but also for me to be able to track > any markup error). > And I'm rulling out transitional doctypes as an option. > W3C presents a lot of information on extending xhtml, but nothing I > can learn or understand in a quick way. > There are also several discussions over the matter on very good > blogs, but all I need right now is an example doctype, or a tutorial, > on how to extend XHTML strict to include frameset and target external > modules, and I cannot find one. > Can some of you folks help me, please? > Thank you, best regards, > Isabel Santos ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
