This site has been assembled in such a way that its contents may easily be
viewed online and printed for use
off-line (preferably using IE5.5). It is, however, strongly
recommended that the information contained in this site should be consulted
on-line to be sure of obtaining only the most recent stylistic and technical
recommendations. All comments &
suggestions are welcome :
Navigation System
The essential goal has been to mimic the simplicity of the standard
Windows Explorer interface. This has been achieved using a menu tree generated in
the left hand frame using asp server side technology such that the client - that is you
the reader - does not need the latest browser technology. Compatibility with older
browsers including Mosaic Netscape 0.9b and Internet Explorer 2.0 has been tested
and confirmed.
Yes it's controversial for some but this site uses frames. Here are the
contra-arguments & answers:
Against Frames
For frames
Frames can be confusing.
As with the menu tree the frames on this site have been structured to mimic the
simplicity of the standard Windows Explorer interface used to find files on both PCs &
Macs. At all times the main information frame can be opened in a separate window by
clicking on the "deframe" link at the top or bottom of the page.
If a user loads a page from within the site without its associated parent frames they
may miss information.
Each page contains a dynamically generated set of links allowing direct access to the
parental hierarchy of the information contained therein and thereby preventing any page
from being "orphaned". In any case for the reasons outlined above each page has
been designed to provide a complete & concise packet of information.
Frames create problems for search engines.
Using frames allows the construction of pages that are information rich & as
opposed to being full of repetitive navigation bars. Search engines, however, rely on
internal navigation links to parse sites efficiently. In this case the dynamically
generated links included on each page of this site direct search engines back to the
default homepage where there are links to all major parts of the site.
The menu tree acts as a site map showing the users location inside the site.
Frames work in old browsers that do not render the more recent dhtml
alternatives.
to open folders
& multipart documents
to close
folders & multipart documents
