CSS or FRAMESET ?

[chrbar]

Hello,

I try to build a Web page with four layers columns.
I use a code from CSSplay:
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/layouts/body5.html

But I meet a lot of troubles to add some scripts like Facebox, Superfish (jQuery Plugins)... because the code of this four layers columns page needs the line:
<!-- IE into quirks mode -->
before the DOCTYPE to correct an IE 5/6 bug.

You can check my test page at:
http://www.christophebarre.com/test/page6-9.html

Thus, I think it'll be easier to use the "old way" with FRAMESET:

<frameset cols="25%,25%,25%,25%" frameborder="no" border="0" framespacing="0">
<frame src="" name="leftFrame" scrolling="yes" noresize="noresize" id="leftFrame" title="leftFrame" />
<frame src="" name="menuFrame" scrolling="yes" noresize="noresize" id="menuFrame" title="menuFrame" />
<frame src="" name="mainFrame" scrolling="yes" noresize="noresize" id="mainFrame" title="mainFrame" />
<frame src="" name="rightFrame" scrolling="yes" noresize="noresize" id="rightFrame" title="rightFrame" />
</frameset>

How do you feel about that?
Is it a good thing to use frameset today?
Do you have another solution?

Thanks,
Chris

[boogyman]

to get a page without any "gutter" would be difficult using CSS because of the way different browsers render.
In an ideal world you could create two two column (col1.1 | col1.2)(col2.1 | col2.2) and set the outer columns to 50% no margin/padding and the inners to 50% no margins/padding (1/2 of 1/2 the total width, or 25%) and use the overflow: auto css style,

however in the practical world, the chances of it looking exactly as you want, is very minute. If all browsers went truly standardized and used the same rendering engine, it would actually be possible to find the dimensions that would be needed to achieve that.

[kepler]

I would avoid frames if at all possible. Individual frames can act as windows themselves and if search engines point to an individual content frame instead of the outer frameset you visitors could lose the navigation for example.

Instead, you may get some ideas from this site The Holier Grail. He only goes to 3 columns but maybe you could ask him for a 4 column version.

Best of luck to you.