hopefully simple frames question, pages always shows in wrong frame!

[Nowhere Man]

Hello,

I've never posted in this newsgroup. I hope I can get some help. I'm
no expert at FrontPage. I've used it enough to have some basic
understanding of how it works, but many things still puzzle me.

I'm using FrontPage XP. My main page is a frames page, set up as
"Banner and Contents" configuration, meaning a frame across top, along
left side, and main one on right side.

These frames are called "banner", "contents" and "main". If I put a
button bar in the banner frame, when the page is clicked, the page
goes in the "contents" frame rather than the "main" frame.

Basically, almost all my pages, I expect to be viewed in the "main"
frame. So, I would think there should be a way to set that as a
default frame, but I can't figure it out, and I've tried to read the
help.

So, I figure alternatively, I could go to the properties of my pages
that will be put into the "main" frame and set the target frame there.
Well, the properties page has a thing called "Base location:" which I
don't know what that is. Then there is a place to enter "Default
target frame" with a button to select frame. Well, I click that
button, and then another properties page comes up. On the upper left
appears a diagram "Current frames page" which shows no frames at all.

Since I'm working on the page while it is not in a frame, I think that
is why it shows no frames at all. If I got to index.htm, which is my
frames page, which has home.htm as the initial page for the "main"
frame, then if I go to the page properties, and try to set the default
target frame, I do see in the "current frames page" diagram my three
frames. But, the deal is, I'm trying to work on the other pages, the
ones that aren't the initial page, but when displayed, they should
replace "home.htm".

So, back to when I'm trying to work on the other pages that I intend
to be viewed in the main frame, and click on the button for the
"default target frame", I see no frames. Lets call one "delphi.htm"
just for an example. It isn't the default page in the main frame, it
is one of the pages that will be viewed there. I can't figure out
what to put. I figure that the frame it is going in is the "main"
frame, I figure I could just type in the name "main" and see if that
works. But it don't. When that page is displayed, it finds itself in
the contents frame.

So, what the heck am I doing wrong? Thanks for any help!

 

[Harold Morgan]

There's a special command needed in your page so it knows its to operate in
a frame environment. I can't remember offhand, but to figure it out, go
through the page wizard and make a framed page set from scratch and then
look at it's code to see the difference.

 

[Cory C. Albrecht]

There's a special command needed in your page so it knows its to operate in
a frame environment. I can't remember offhand, but to figure it out, go
through the page wizard and make a framed page set from scratch and then
look at it's code to see the difference.

It's called the target parameter in the <a> tag.

<a href="page.html" target="main">

Look in the main page that sets up the frames with the <frameset> and
<frame> tags. The frame should be something like

<frame src="contents.html" name="contents" />

Whatever is in the name attribute in the <frame> tag is what you use in
the target attribute of the <a> tag to say which pane.

There is no way of setting a default pane in which all links clicked on
then open in. The "default" in HTML is if there is no target attribute -
then the link open in that same pane where you are clicking the link. If
you want a link to open in a different pane then you _must_ use the
target attribute.