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G'day again Helen (and list) > I've just finished a predominantly frames site and have received feedback > from someone connected with it who said that it is no longer considered > good practice to force external links to open in a new window. Depends. If the intention is to let people go to that site, not being "in support" of your site, I would agree. For instance, if your site is a "portal", it has served its purpose once people have founf the link they want. If it is a site that you are using to support your own (like examples of sites you have designed), I disagree, as the intention is usually for the visitor to come back. Of course, they can do that with the "back" button on their browser. If the link leads to some advertiser's site, there's no way I'd get it to overwrite my own site, be that framed or not. Advertisers have their uses but I will never let an advertiser steal my customers withuot giving the customer a reminder that I'm still there... Whatever you do, you should not display OTHER people's sites WITHIN your own frames. This is generally considered to be bad practice. Why? Because it gives the impression that the external site is actually part of yours. Also, depending on your frames setup, the site may look horrible. Imagine someone visiting your siite with a screen resolution of 640x480. Now let's say the frame the site is loaded into is 400x200. That's very little room to display most sites in. Many sites are set up with tables at around 600 pixels width - doesn't fit in a frame of 400 pixels width... Of course, if the person is your customer, point these things out to them and see whether they will change their mind. If they insist in overwriting their own site when visitors click on a link, let them have it :-) HTH -- Bert Doorn, Web Developer http://www.BetterWebDesign.com.au. and http://www.BWDzine.com/
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