Re: Favicon

Tim's right, just a bit more info I may be able to add ...

tim booker wrote:
>Create a 16x16px, 16 colour icon file.

It needs to be named "favicon.ico" (without the quotes). I've found you do 
need an icon editor program - creating a file in some graphic programs, 
saving as a .bmp, and then renaming it as a .ico file doesn't work 
reliably. (Have seen that suggestion in places) There are several free icon 
creator programs, search for "icon program" at any search engine, or see 
the list at
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/
http://www.nonags.com
http://www.jumbo.com/
http://shareware.cnet.com/
and I believe Microangelo has a free trial of their program - use it to 
create your icon, then un-install the program.
http://www.impactsoft.com/

>Put it in the root of your site, eg:
>http://www.timbooker.com/favicon.ico
>Whever someone bookmarks your site in IE5, it looks for the file at that 
>location.
>If you want to store the file in another location, you can use some HTML
>code, although I've never tried this:
><LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="http://www.timbooker.com/whatever.ico">

Well, yes and no. On all subdirectory pages, that will work. But, it's not 
necessary. In subdirectories, MSIE 5 will go down to the root directory and 
get it, it doesn't need help.

What _IS_ nice, is if you have a subdirectory where you want a _different_ 
favicon. For that, YES! I can say for sure that this works. i.e. In the 
main site, autumnweb.com, there is one there. I also have a different one 
in subdirectory named /Roxys/  On the pages in the 'Roxys' subdirectory, I put
<.LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="http://www.autumnweb.com/Roxys/favicon.ico">
and upload the 2nd, different icon file to that subdirectory. When someone 
is in the main directory, and adds it to their favorites, they get one 
icon. When they go to the 'Roxys' subdirectory, add it to favorites, they 
get a different icon.

>It might be somewhat confusing getting favicon to work.  You might need to
>close your browser and kill your cache before you see the result of your
>changes.

You need to remove ALL current favorites for the site from your browser, 
first. Then close browser and clear the cache.

And, unfortunately, the icon will disappear once you clear your cache, or 
your cache file deletes older entries to make room for new ones. So, 
eventually, it does go away anyway.

>More information at http://www.favicon.com/

Yep, best place that I've found. A few (I didn't check to see if they're 
still good) others are:
http://www.pageresource.com/zine/favie.htm
http://wdvl.internet.com/Authoring/Design/Images/Favicon/index.html
http://www.rodstreet.com/ArtEffects/Other/icon.htm
http://www.foreverweb.com/articles/99may3.htm
http://www.xoomhacker.com/favicon.html

HTH, Roxy
http://autumnweb.com/


> > Now I know this is something that comes up quite regularly but can anybody
> > supply me with a definitive set of instructions for getting a FAVICON to
>work -
> > icon size, colours, set-up (one set of instructions, for example, told me
>I
> > needed some HTML another said I didn't). No matter what I've tried in the
>past I
> > can't get the little critter to work.

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