TIP 185: Targeting Two Frames

When you create a link in a page of a frameset, you always assign a target to the link so the Web browser knows which frame to open the link into (See Tip 75). Usually this works fine, but what happens when you have a more complicated frames design? For example, maybe you need one link to change two frames to update a navigation frame and a content frame. Use the Target2Frames Action to change two frames simultaneously with one link. Just follow these steps:

1.	Create a frameset with at least three frames and make sure all the frames have unique names.
2.	Select the text or image you want to use and assign the link by clicking the Link icon in the toolbar .
3.	Open the Actions palette from the Window menu, select the Mouse Click event on the left, click the New Action icon on the right. Then choose Link > Target2Frames from the Action pull-down menu. Notice GoLive automatically adds a pound sign (#) as the link destination in the Inspector. Leave this as is and don't add a custom link because the Action will do all the linking for you.
4.	Enter the two frames and the pages you want to load into those frames at the bottom of the Actions palette (Figure 185). Figure 185. Set the Action parameters in the Actions palette and test in a Web browser.
5.	Preview the frameset in a Web browser to check the results. Voila!

Kill That Frame

While it's common to want two frames to load at the same time when a link is clicked, it's also common to want a link to break out of a frameset. To force a frame to reload outside the frameset but in the same window, use the KillFrame Action found in the Link section of the Actions pull-down. Simply add the action to a link and you're done!