I used frames in my tatting site some months ago because I was learning how to use them and had finally cracked it. However I then had to learn how to use pop ups and Javascript to reference all the pages to one another AND write a no-frames site. I might well do what you're doing, Lisa, because it's such a pain writing all the pages when you're updating. The
www.oneandone.co.uk site uses Frames throughout and they're an absolute pain because they are extremely slow to load and chock full of small images - I think at the last count it was around 50 per page. They look nice but it spoils an otherwise professionally designed site. And every time you log in you get a second window popping up on top of another - and another - and another.
It's the same thing at
www.vu.org - I've had to learn to close down their chat cafe window because it doesn't close automatically nor does it have a close window button and you just end up with dozens of open windows! They can look nice though when well used. All of my pop up windows for my patterns and techniques have a "Close Window" button on my site and they only navigate to the main page (in case someone hotlinks) so you can't get lost.
The one advantage of the pop ups is that you can make it difficult for people to hot link and steal your pages. However someone who knows HTML inside out can do it anyway without difficulty.
Gillian Buchanan
Tatting Host at Bella Online