Frames: remove the outer borders in IE; background transparency

HTML & CSS
1

Hi,

Here’s a sample frameset:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Sample frameset</title>
</head>
<frameset rows="50%,50%">
  <frame src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4017788/Labs/frame_a.html">
  <frame src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4017788/Labs/frame_a.html">
</frameset>
</html>

a) How to remove the frames outer borders (NOT the separator resizing border between the frames) that appear in IE?
b) How to set the frames background to transparent?
c) If there aren’t straightforward solutions to the above issues, what’s a good alternative to the frameset that provides a resizing handle/border? Any different approach?

Many thanks in advance!
Mike

2

a) IE only obeys the FRAMEBORDER attribute… so add frameborder=“0” to all your FRAME tags.

b) you don’t… frame’s background is set by the page loaded in the frame, since frames are basically separate browser windows being shown OVER the parent page containing the frameset.

c) Is this 1997? Frames are supposed to have gone the way of the Dodo for a reason. Your correct answer to the problem is “don’t use frames” – they’re an accessibility nightmare, don’t index well by the search engines, make direct linking to content a royal PITA – much like image maps there’s little legitimate reason to be using them today.

… and before some dip from the peanut gallery chimes in, NO, throwing AJAX at it isn’t the answer either.

Though I’d have to see what it is you’re trying to do for a page to say for certain – like any other quick rule of thumb, there are always exceptions.

3

Thanks for the answer!

It removes all the borders, not just the outer ones.

Please give a background color to the parent element, e.g.

<html style="background:green;">

Since the frames are transparent, you should be able to see the green color through them.

I’m working on Real-time HTML Editor and trying to expand its features and finally embed it on my website. Instead of using a frameset I can simply use a textarea and iframe – no extra borders, no default white background color, very “styleable”. However, a very important quality is missing: I can’t resize the iframe and textarea as easily as you see on the frameset. I agree that frames are “evil”, but I like the framed layout and the ability to have easily resizable content panels. Any thoughts?