Archive for the ‘Websites’ Category
July 22nd, 2010 | 
Author: Have you ever wondered how websites get that image next to the website address (url)? It’s known as a fav or favorites icon and is pretty easy to create. This article will teach you how to create it and then add it to your website. Having a fav icon will help set you apart from other sites and make it instantly recognizable when in their bookmarked favorites. Think of the red Y of Yahoo, or the G of Google.
First select an image that you wish to use for your favorites icon. Many people use their own logo and produce a smaller version of it. Or, you could use a single letter to represent the name of your company. Pick something that will still be recognizable even when reduced in size. For our fav icon, we have the Purple Star from our logo:
The favorites icon is a file type called .ico. You don’t need any fancy software or a tool to generate the icon file. There are many sites out there that will do the work for you. One good one is by Dynamic Drive. Their FavIcon Generator can be found here: http://tools.dynamicdrive.com
Simply click the Browse button to find the image on your machine. The file should be in one of the following formats: .gif, .jpg, .bmp or .png. Once you have the file, click the Create Icon button.
You will be shown a preview of how your favicon would look once added to your site. If you are happy with this, click the Download FavIcon button. This will download it to your computer.
Once you have the file on your machine, you will need to transfer it to your web server to the route directory, or top level of your site. If you do not have access to the web server, or don’t know how to do this, be sure to contact your web designer, or find one to help you out with this. Finally, you will need to add the following code to the <head> section of your index.html or main.html page. (again, if you are not sure, check with your web designer).
<link rel=”shortcut icon” type=”image/x-icon” href=”favicon.ico”>
The href will need to be the path to where you uploaded your favicon file. You should be able to get away with just adding this to the home page of your website. However, if you are not sure, you can add it to all of the pages. Some browsers will need to have their cache refreshed in order to see the new icon next to the url in the browser. Good luck! You can always post your questions below if you are not sure.
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