<FRAMESET ...> defines the general layout of a web page that uses frames. <FRAMESET ...> is used in conjunction with
<FRAME ...> and
<NOFRAMES>.
<FRAMESET ...> creates a "table of documents" in which each rectangle (called a "frame") in the table holds a separate document. In its simplest use, <FRAMESET ...> states how many columns and/or rows will be in the "table". You must use either the
COLS or the
ROWS attributes or both. For example, this code creates a set of frames that is two columns wide and two rows deep:
<FRAMESET ...> itself only define how many rows and columns of frames there will be.<FRAME ...> defines what files will actual go into those frames.
<FRAMESET ...> can be nested within another <FRAMESET ...> to create a "table within a table". By doing this you can create frames that are not strict grids like in the example above. This set of nested framesets creates the popular "title and sidebar" layout.
The first <FRAMESET ...> creates a "table" of two rows and only one column (because there is no COLS attribute). The first row in the frameset is filled in by the first <FRAME ...>. The row in the frameset is filled in not by a frame but by another
<FRAMESET ...>. This inner frameset has two columns, which are filled in by two <FRAMESET ...>'s.