Dreamweaver

View and set frame properties and attributes

Use the Property inspector to view and set most frame properties, including borders, margins, and whether scroll bars appear in frames. Setting a frame property overrides the setting for that property in a frameset.

You may also want to set some frame attributes, such as the title attribute (which is not the same as the name attribute), to improve accessibility. You can enable the accessibility authoring option for frames to set attributes when you create frames, or you can set attributes after inserting a frame. To edit accessibility attributes for a frame, use the Tag inspector to edit the HTML code directly.

View or set frame properties

  1. Select a frame by doing one of the following:

    • Alt‑click (Windows) or Shift-Option-click (Macintosh) a frame in the Document window’s Design view.

    • Click a frame in the Frames panel (Window > Frames).

  2. In the Property inspector (Window > Properties), click the expander arrow in the lower-right corner to see all of the frame properties.
  3. Set the frame Property inspector options.
    Frame Name
    The name used by a link’s target attribute or by a script to refer to the frame. A frame name must be a single word; underscores (_) are allowed, but hyphens (‑), periods (.), and spaces are not. A frame name must start with a letter (as opposed to a numeral). Frame names are case-sensitive. Don’t use terms that are reserved words in JavaScript (such as top or navigator) as frame names.
    To make a link change the contents of another frame, you must name the target frame. To make it easier to create cross-frame links later, name each of your frames when you create it.

    Src
    Specifies the source document to display in the frame. Click the folder icon to browse to and select a file.

    Scroll
    Specifies whether scroll bars appear in the frame. Setting this option to Default doesn’t set a value for the corresponding attribute, allowing each browser to use its default value. Most browsers default to Auto, meaning that scroll bars appear only when there is not enough room in a browser window to display the full contents of the current frame.

    No Resize
    Prevents visitors from dragging the frame borders to resize the frame in a browser.
    Note: You can always resize frames in Dreamweaver; this option applies only to visitors viewing the frames in a browser.

    Borders
    Shows or hides the borders of the current frame when it’s viewed in a browser. Selecting a Borders option for a frame overrides the frameset’s border settings.

    Border options are Yes (show borders), No (hide borders), and Default; most browsers default to showing borders, unless the parent frameset has Borders set to No. A border is hidden only when all frames that share the border have Borders set to No, or when the parent frameset’s Borders property is set to No and the frames sharing the border have Borders set to Default.

    Border Color
    Sets a border color for all of the frame’s borders. This color applies to all borders that touch the frame, and overrides the specified border color of the frameset.

    Margin Width
    Sets the width in pixels of the left and right margins (the space between the frame borders and the content).

    Margin Height
    Sets the height in pixels of the top and bottom margins (the space between the frame borders and the content).
    Note: Setting the margin width and height for a frame is not the same as setting margins in the Modify > Page Properties dialog box.
    To change the background color of a frame, set the background color of the document in the frame in page properties.

Set accessibility values for a frame

  1. In the Frames panel (Window > Frames), select a frame by placing the insertion point in one of the frames.
  2. Select Modify > Edit Tag.
  3. Select Style Sheet/Accessibility from the category list on the left, enter values, and click OK.

Edit accessibility values for a frame

  1. Display Code view or Code and Design views for your document, if you’re currently in Design view.
  2. In the Frames panel (Window > Frames), select a frame by placing the insertion point in one of the frames. Dreamweaver highlights the frame tag in the code.
  3. Right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) in the code, and then select Edit Tag.
  4. In the tag editor, make your changes and click OK.

Change the background color of a document in a frame

  1. Place the insertion point in the frame.
  2. Select Modify > Page Properties.
  3. In the Page Properties dialog box, click the Background color menu, and select a color.