[cwkmacuser]

Hi. Like the title says, is it possible to create frames with iWeb?

Just wondering.

[Oisín]

A quick Google search says that no, iWeb does not do frames, only iframes.

Of course, you can always make pseudo-frames with iframes, if you really want to.

[cwkmacuser]

What are iFrames exactly?

[Oisín]

Internal frames. An object inside an HTML page that contains another HTML page (or other content). Basically, it works the same as a normal frame, except it doesn’t need a content-empty page that defines a frameset in order to work. Wikipedia is your friend.

[besson3c]

Why do you need frames anyway? It is really only extremely rare when you should need them, and even then there are almost always workarounds. You can reproduce the look of frames with CSS.

[Chuckit]

Good Web designers can't do frames either.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Good Web designers can't do frames either.

Well, they can. They just choose not to.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

Well, they can. They just choose not to.

If they do, they're not good Web designers anymore. It's an a priori fact.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

You can reproduce the look of frames with CSS.

But not in iWeb.

-t

[cwkmacuser]

My dad likes to use them on his website and I was trying to find out if he could use iWeb (or something similar) to do the same thing.

See www.zephyrtravel.us for what I mean.

[Oisín]

There’s absolutely no reason for frames on that site.

I can’t see much reason for the combination of dark Persian indigo background with screaming green-and-yellow text, either.

[cwkmacuser]

My dad doesn't like bright backgrounds and dark text. He says it's like a light bulb shining in his face. That is the reason for the color choices. I don't think frames are necessary, but he has been complemented on how easy it is to navigate his site. I'm trying to get him away from HTML and into the world of simple web design, but frames for him are a must.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by cwkmacuser 

but frames for him are a must.

Then iWeb is not the right tool.

Btw, maybe you should tell you dad that a commercial website is *NOT* about one's own preferences, but about making it easy and good looking for the *CUSTOMERS*.

-t

[cwkmacuser]

I agree that the colors are not normal, but it actually is easy to use. However, I do joke around with him about his color choices. They make his computer look horrible, and websites end up loading wrong that way.

[msuper69]

Those color choices are horrible, iMO.

Why can't web sites just use white backgrounds and black text? Web sites like this are too hard to read.

I don't even bother reading the text on a site like that.

If web site designers think they are being cool by designing pages like that they are sadly mistaken.

[shifuimam]

Originally Posted by cwkmacuser 

My dad doesn't like bright backgrounds and dark text. He says it's like a light bulb shining in his face. That is the reason for the color choices. I don't think frames are necessary, but he has been complemented on how easy it is to navigate his site. I'm trying to get him away from HTML and into the world of simple web design, but frames for him are a must.

A combination of SSI and CSS will get him exactly what he wants - navigation that is always visible on the page, no matter how far down you scroll, and a single file that he updates to change the navigation or other content.

If what you want is for him to have a simple way to manage the website, get him with a web host that provides a site builder, or use a super-simple CMS like WordPress (yes, it's a blogging tool, but it can also be used for other website content). Otherwise, he might consider hiring someone to do the work for him. Get a college kid or someone who freelances for cheap.

[Old Toad]

You can do a lot with iFrames and HTML snippets in iWeb. You can embed video files, other web pages, MMe galleries, Google calendars, SimpleViewer flash slideshows, forms, etc. These demo pages contain examples of what you can do with iFrames:

<a href="http://web.me.com/toad.hall/Demo_1/Add_Form.html" title="http://web.me.com/toad.hall/Demo_1/Add_Form.html">Embedding Forms</a>

<a href="http://web.me.com/toad.hall/Demo_2/Widget-MapsCal.html" title="../Demo_2/Widget-MapsCal.html">Adding Maps and Calendar via Widget</a>

<a href="http://web.me.com/toad.hall/Demo_1/Scrolling_Text_Box.html" title="http://web.me.com/toad.hall/Demo_1/Scrolling_Text_Box.html">Scrolling Text Box</a>

<a href="http://web.me.com/toad.hall/Demo_2/Widget-MMeQT.html" title="http://web.me.com/toad.hall/Demo_2/Widget-MMeQT.html">MobileMe Galleries and Quicktime Movies</a>

<a href="http://web.me.com/toad.hall/Demo_3/SimpleViewer.html" title="../Demo_3/SimpleViewer.html">SimpleViewer and Flash Album Exporter</a>

<a href="http://web.me.com/toad.hall/Demo_3/Postcard.html" title="../Demo_3/Postcard.html">Flash Album Exporter Postcard and AutoViewer Slideshow Themes</a>

[turtle777]

Uhm, yeah, you know that you post links like this in vBulletin:

[URL="http://www.mypage.com"]http://www.mypage.com[/URL ]

-t

[cwkmacuser]

Yeah, things on the forum work just a bit different then your standard HTML codes!

[Old Toad]

Yes, I'm finding that out. But I'm getting there.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Old Toad 

Yes, I'm finding that out. But I'm getting there.

You know that you can edit your post and fix it ?

-t

[besson3c]

Old Toad: you can grab content from other sites via PHP and Javascript, you don't need iframes to do that. iframes are a complete PITA to work with, they should be avoided at all costs.

[Old Toad]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

You know that you can edit your post and fix it ?-t

Now you're challenging my laziness.

[cwkmacuser]

Is there any technical reason not to use frames, besides the fact that no one does it?

[Old Toad]

From what I've read on the Apple iWeb forum Internet Explorer doesn't render frames (or iFrames) well. My tutorial site, http://toadstutorials.info, uses frames but not iFrames. I hand crafted the frames with BBEdit.

[cwkmacuser]

OK. I'll try it with Explorer sometime.

[Salty]

I'm sure your dad means well... but I would never ever ever buy anything from a site that looked like that.

[melgorman]

I'm building a website for a client in iWeb '08, using iWeb so she can maintain it herself. A problem I've run into is that the site contains a blog...I was unaware that a blog created in iWeb will not allow viewers to add a comment to a blog entry if the site is not hosted on MobileMe (it is hosted on GoDaddy). Searching, I've only found this solution... to embed a WordPress (or otherwise) blog into an iFrame on the blog page of the site. At first glance it appears to work, but when you click a link other than the main comment title, the iFrame jumps to the top of the screen, along with the scrollbar, hiding the top half of the page. Any suggestions? Here is the URL to the page in question http://www.chefcourtney13.com/C13/theCspot..html

Thank you!!!

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by melgorman 

I'm building a website for a client in iWeb '08, using iWeb so she can maintain it herself. A problem I've run into is that the site contains a blog...I was unaware that a blog created in iWeb will not allow viewers to add a comment to a blog entry if the site is not hosted on MobileMe (it is hosted on GoDaddy). Searching, I've only found this solution... to embed a WordPress (or otherwise) blog into an iFrame on the blog page of the site. At first glance it appears to work, but when you click a link other than the main comment title, the iFrame jumps to the top of the screen, along with the scrollbar, hiding the top half of the page. Any suggestions? Here is the URL to the page in question http://www.chefcourtney13.com/C13/theCspot..html

Thank you!!!

I don't mean to sound like a dick, but just to be honest here, if it were me I wouldn't have any client edit their site in iWeb, that's just asking for a ton of support issues and headaches. Really, I wouldn't do anything professional with iWeb, it's best for posting pictures of your cat.

If you really want to do it this way, I would create a WordPress site using a template with absolutely no header, and I would use php file_get_contents() to fetch URLs and display them on the page so that I don't have to use frames. Where this gets really messy is when the user starts clicking on links in the blog, it would quickly become an integration nightmare no matter whether you are using frames or not.

Really, I would have just done the site in WordPress to begin with. Forget iWeb.

[melgorman]

I appreciate your honesty. Thanks for the suggestion.
iWeb was not my first choice, she is familiar with it, has it, so that's the route we took.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by melgorman 

I appreciate your honesty. Thanks for the suggestion.
iWeb was not my first choice, she is familiar with it, has it, so that's the route we took.

I hope I'm not overstepping my boundaries here, but is she aware how bad of an idea this is? Are you in a position to be forceful in the advice you give her? You are putting yourself in a lose-lose situation by pursuing using iWeb as a CMS trying to get it to do what it was never designed to do.

[besson3c]

You could also tackle this by pointing out that if she is interested in getting good Google search results for her site, iWeb and its awful code is definitely not a good way to do this. Her investment in her site is being greatly devalued this way.

[melgorman]

No, I appreciate the input. I'm not in a position to be forceful. She is starting a private chef business on a very quick timeframe and no budget. Her main wants were to post her resume/bio and a photo gallery of her food. She wants to spark a forum where people at her events can comment on her food via the gallery. She has used iWeb in the past for a photo gallery and is comfortable with it, but hates templates. She hopes to upgrade her site after a few gigs, but right now wanted something she can manage. Time will tell, and in the meantime, I'm only putting forth the effort equal to the budget. I hate to do that, but...

[andi*pandi]

Originally Posted by cwkmacuser 

See www.zephyrtravel.us for what I mean.

ow ow ow.

And for once I agree with Besson, no need for frames here.

[ccrider]

here's a link that may help:

http://iwebfaq.org/site/iWeb_Blogging.html

and here's some sample code that I've used with a blogspot site for your html snippet. Replace with your wordpress link:

<iframe src=
"http://yourblognamehere.blogspot.com/"
style="width:660px; height:1200px;
border-width:0px;
border-color:#990033;
border-style:solid;"
scrolling="auto" >
</iframe>

I'm not sure why your site is doing that weird thing with the disappearing header when clicking links. The only trouble I've really ran into is when clicking external links they end up in the iframe which looks crappy. This site has a solution to that, which you will have to pass on to your client for when she want to add a link to her post:

http://bloggersentral.blogspot.com/2...ew-window.html

You also may need to adjust the template on your wordpress site so that the it fits horizontally within the iframe so you don't have a horizontal scroll bar show up (it looks like yours does fit).

Hopefully this helps melgorman - it is totally doable and you can make it look good. Lots of people use iWeb for their professional site and with a little customization, it can look nice.

-craig

[cwkmacuser]

Actually, a lot of people like that site! I, personally believe that you can create a website without using frames but my Dad's customers like it.

Final Comment.