Hi! Thanks for returning for another week of the beloved HTML newsletter. This week I have a quick and easy way to enhance your Web site and the way it's displayed in Internet Explorer. This week I'll tell you how you can make IE display your logo or any small image in the address bar and next to your Web site name in the favorites menu.

From time to time while surfing around the net (using Internet Explorer) I've noticed that when some sites load into my browser a small logo is also displayed to the left of the URL in the address bar. I also noticed how, when these sites are chosen as favorites in IE, the same logo appears next to the site name in the favorites list. I always thought that this was a neat trick - a relatively non-obtrusive way to add a little extra sparkle to your site. As I found out, it doesn't really take all that much effort and anyone can add this effect to their Web site with relative ease.

Before doing this lesson you'll need to download a small application. Sorry, Mac users, this weeks' lesson is strictly PC - but I promise to make it up to you by talking about a Mac specific issue in the future. If anyone has a suggestion for a Mac related issue, please email me at paulvmiller@yahoo.com and I'll pick a topic from the suggestions.

As I mentioned, you'll need to download a small application - a Windows icon editor. A good, easy example of this kind of program is called Icon Editor and is available for free trial download from Herman Compute, http://www.hermancompute.com/ -- and if you choose to buy it it's only $30 - a pretty good deal.

So, download a trial copy and make an icon for yourself. Most icons are around 16 pixels wide by 16 pixels high, which is pretty small as graphics go. Keep in mind that you have a very limited amount of space to deal with! Once you have your icon file (it will have a .ico at the end of it) we can move on to actually putting it on the Web, which is really quite easy.

There are two ways to display your icon file. The first way is the easiest way, but it only works if you have access to the root directory in your Web site. If you have a free Web site or a Web space provided with an Internet connection, then you're less likely to have root access, and this method won't apply. No matter, there's a way to work around that. But if you do have root access, then all you have to do is the following:

Upload your icon to the root directory (if the domain name of your Web page is realestateisgroovy.com then the root directory is the directory people go to when typing www.realestateisgroovy.com into their Web browser. Put your icon file here.) Here's the catch - you MUST name it "favicon.ico" for this to work! And that's all it should take--your icon should appear when people go to your Web site.

If you don't have root access to your server (especially if you're getting a free Web site or free Web space) then you'll need to put your icon file wherever you have your index.htm file stored. In this case, it's not necessary to name it favicon.ico - you can name it anything you want...but there's some code to add to your page. You have to tell the browser were to find your icon file, and what it's named. If your icon is named "my_icon.ico" and you upload files to the directory "my_directory" then the following code should go in the HEAD of your HTML document:

<link rel="shortcut icon"
href="/my_directory/my_icon.ico">

You may have to mess around with this to get it to work. In one instance, I had to try a few different variations of the directory hierarchy till I got the right one. Once you do get it right, though, just go to your site on the Internet and add it as a favorite. If you already have it added as a favorite, IE will ask you if you want to overwrite it. Say yes, and you should see your logo appear before your site name. Neat, right?