README for the DocBook Stylesheets Frame Support Introduction ------------ Support for frames is a common request. Supporting frames with a stylesheet that builds a frames-only version of a document has never been very appealing to me, so I haven't bothered. (The main problem is that this approach doesn't help solve the difficult problem of the navigation frame.) Recent changes to the stylesheets have made another approach practical. The files in this directory provide frames support using a set of techniques that require almost no modification to the HTML. The single required change is a link to a CSS stylesheet. One benefit of this technique is that I can imaging framed and non-framed versions of a document using exactly the same files (with symbolic links, or something). The only difference between the two versions would be the CSS stylesheet applied. The downside to this technique is that it requires a fairly modern browser. In order for this to work, your browser must support: - Frames - Dynamic HTML - CSS At present, only IE 4.01SP1 (or later, presumably) is supported. In particular, Netscape is not supported. ************************************************************* * I tried for several days to make this implementation work * * in Netscape. As near as I can tell, Netscape through * * version 4.5 simply does not have enough power in its * * object model to make this practical. If you can make it * * work, I'd be delighted to include support for Netscape, * * but I'm not going to spend anymore time on it in the near * * future. * ************************************************************* I'm really disappointed that I can't get this working under some browser other than IE. Installation ------------ 1. Create a directory to hold your framed document 2. Copy docbook.css, docbook.js, *.htm, and the ../images/toc-*.gif images into that directory. 3. Process your document with the frames.dsl stylesheet (or an extension thereof). 4. Fire up your browser and point it at frames.htm. If your document isn't a "<book>", you'll have to edit frames.htm to make the body frame load correctly the first time. Warranty -------- THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL NORMAN WALSH OR ANY OTHER CONTRIBUTOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. Contacting the Author --------------------- These stylesheets are maintained by Norman Walsh, <ndw@nwalsh.com>. The best way to reach norm is by email. You will find additional contact information at http://nwalsh.com/~ndw/