Frames We have deliberately chosen not to use frames on any of the pages we created or modified for this project. Though frames have been adopted as an HTML 4.0 standard, we refuse to use them for several reasons: Users often become disoriented when navigating framed sites, because the Back button behaves differently in different browsers. Users are sometimes unable to bookmark a framed page. Therefore, they are unable to return to it easily. No matter how deep into a site a user might go, the URL displayed in the browser remains the same as the home page for the set. At sites such as this, when users bookmark an internal page, they actually get the main page, rather than the page they intended to bookmark. Users encounter unexpected results when trying to print a framed page. To print a framed document, the specific document within a frameset must have the focus of the browser. Most users are unable to determine which component of the framed page is the focus.

2 March 1999
Networked Information Services
Office of Information Technology
Boston University
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