Having described an agenda whereby greater flexibility of web site design is possible, what specific changes/improvements can we make to our site? Many are needed. Perhaps the most obvious change is to include the use of frames. Although they were initially slightly contentious amongst a community sad enough to debate such issues, frames provide much to the web page developer and audience. They enable the provision of a consistent interface throughout a site, which enables both ease of use for the visitor, and ease of maintenance for the author. Because frames are simply `containers' for other web pages, and because a page in one frame can determine the behaviour or content of another, they add another level of flexibility in design.
The addition of `layers' in HTML 4 is arguably the most significant new feature in the standard (i.e. what can be guaranteed to work cross-platform and cross-browser). Just as frames are containers of child pages within a parent page, so layers are containers for elements within a page - these elements can be sections of text, pictures, tables, or anything else you encounter on a web page. Their location within a page can be animated; multiple layers can be arranged on top of one another, and these layers can be shown or hidden under the control of JavaScript. The real significance of this for the author in archaeology is the ability to layer explanatory graphics over actual site plans or photographs. Rather than simply saying the familiar `This photograph shows a Bronze Age house, with entrance and hearth', we can interactively highlight our record of their fragments left in the ground, and demonstrate to the viewer how we come to the conclusions we do.
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Last updated: Thu May 27 1999