Back to Tips on Using This Site
Craig Kosak
Art Director, Microsoft Developer Network
June 25, 1996
We've used frames on this site to provide non-scrolling regions on each page. These regions offer navigation tools that let you move freely around the site (you'll find that no content is more than two clicks away) and locators to let you know what part of the site you're in. We've also taken advantage of Microsoft® Internet Explorer's ability (in version 3.0) to display frames without borders, although the site works quite nicely in Netscape Navigator as well. As you move around the site, you'll notice three, slightly different frameset layouts, each one denoting a different level in the site's hierarchy.
The top level contains the home page, offering links to content-specific areas of the site as well as news about recent updates and features you may want to explore. This level displays three frames: a navigation bar across the top, a title bar on the left side (both of these are not resizable and do not scroll), and a text window containing site news and links to the six main content areas (authoring/editing, design/creative, and so on). The navigation bar provides a way to quickly access content based on product or technology names, or to initiate a search. These links are displayed in pop-up menus in Internet Explorer 3.0, or appear in the text window in Netscape Navigator. The title bar on the left side of the window provides links to the site's infrastructure topics (what's new, contents, index, resources, and so on). When clicked, the appropriate pages appear in the text window.
The next step down in the site's hierarchy is the topic level. The site has six main topics: authoring/editing, design/creative, programming, site administration, planning/production, and demo/how-to site. When you jump to one of these areas through the home page or the Tasks menu, you'll see three similar, but slightly different frames: a modified navigation bar across the top, a title bar on the left side, and a main text window occupying the remainder of your screen. In the text window, you'll find a complete listing of articles for that area. Topic-specific news and features are also provided. The navigation bar is similar to the one on the home page but adds a Tasks menu with links to the other main content areas. Also added are links to site infrastructure topics that appeared in the title bar of the home page. When you click these, the relevant content appears in the text window. You can return to the topic's content listing by clicking in the title bar to the left of the text window. You can also return to the home page by clicking on the group of spheres in the left area of the navigation bar. The navigation bar appears on all pages in the site, so you'll have direct access to our search tool, the site's index, or any other feature no matter where you happen to be.
When you click the name of an article you want to read, you jump to the third level of the site's hierarchy: the article level. Again, a similar, but slightly different frame layout is displayed. The navigation bar across the top remains the same, a small title bar appears in the upper-left corner (just below the navigation bar), and a condensed contents listing for that topic area appears just below it. The remainder of the screen is occupied by the text of the article you selected. At this level, you may resize the windows horizontally to provide more reading area. Clicking any of the articles in the condensed contents listing replaces the current article with the one you selected, and you can return to the appropriate topic level (one level up) by clicking the small title bar. As before, clicking the group of spheres in the navigation bar takes you to the home page.
We hope you'll find this navigation scheme helpful, and that our use of frames adds value to the site. Either way, we'd like to hear what you think. Just click "Feedback" on the left to send mail directly to our Web team.
P.S. Coming soon: You will be able to add or remove the navigation frames from any point in the site!