Want to make your web site standout in crowded favorites lists in
browsers and address bars? How about displaying your logo next to
links to your site?
First, you have to create a logo for your site; a very tiny logo to
be specific. The size of the logo should be 16x16 pixels in 16 colors
and it
should be saved as a Windows icon file (favicon.ico).
Many people assume that an icon file is just a bitmap, however this is
not the case. You cannot just rename a bitmap with an .ico
extension and expect it to work. If you have tried this technique and
can't get Explorer to recognize your icon, you now know why. You
can create an icon file online with the free icon editor at http://www.favicon.co.uk .
Or if you already have a BitMap you want to use (you will need
to make sure your bitmap logo is saved either as 32X32 pixels or 48X48
pixels), Windows users can download a freeware Bitmap to Icon converter
called Bitmap
To Icon.
For Mac users there is a shareware program called Graphic
Converter.
And if you're using a UNIX/LINUX workstation check out this Document.
Once you have an icon file with your logo, you're ready to take the
final step. Following methods will work in Explorer 5.x and higher
without having any negative effects on other browsers.
Option 1.
This is the easiest method to implement and it will work regardless
of the particular page on your site users choose to add to their
favorites list. You need access to your web site root.
If you have access to the root of your web site, save your icon file
as "favicon.ico" there. For example, if your web
site is "www.mywebsite.com", your icon file
should be available at "www.mywebsite.com/favicon.ico".
The web browser will look for favicon.ico whenever your
site is added to the favorites list and if it is found at the root of
your web site, the icon will appear next to the link to your site.
Option 2.
If you don't have access to the root of your web site, you have to
add the following code to your web page so that the browser will know
where to look for your icon. Unlike before, this time you can save the
icon under any name ending with ".ico". We'll use
the name "logo.ico" and assume that your web site
is under the directory "~your_directory".
Insert the code below in between the <HEAD>
and </HEAD> tags:
<LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="/~your_directory/logo.ico"
type="image/x-icon">
By the way, you can specify multiple logos for multiple
pages using the second method. Simply save your icons using unique
names, such as logo1.ico, logo2.ico, logo3.ico
for example, and replace "logo.ico" in the above
HTML code with the name of the icon you want to use for any particular
page.
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