What SSI amounts to is creating a new page for any elements common to all pages on your site. Then ask server to include these pages whenever main pages are requested.

For example, build a regular HTML page containing all content, including graphics, as is often used in left column of a page as basis of navigation. Then, instead of adding this content to each page, simply include file. And hey, it's super. If you need to make a change, you make it only once, instead of on every page on your site.

SSI Slows Page Downloads?

What prevented me initially from using SSI were notes I read regards increasing page download time. Each page using included files needs to parsed (read) by server to find any files to be included. Being an absolute fanatic about minimizing page download speed, I passed. Bad mistake.

Updating Multiple Pages Chews Up Time

Six month later, changing a single menu item was taking hours. I decided to ignore page download time and go. But I ran into another snag. Pages with includes need SHTML extension, else server won't parse them. (An S in front of HTML.)

Switching From HTML to SHTML Busts Links

Nuts. I already had lots of incoming links. Since I didn't want to bust them by changing file names, I passed once again.

I had heard people speak of ways in which a server in some cases could be instructed to treat HTML pages as SHTML pages. But I didn't check it out. Another bad mistake.

The Perfect Solution

Many months later I ran across following code. Add these lines to top of your .htaccess file, and all existing HTML files will be parsed just as if they had .SHTML extension. Neat. No changes in file names, which means no busted incoming links.

Options Includes AddType text/html .html AddHandler server-parsed .html

.htaccess is a hidden file in root directory on your server. It is helpful in doing many things, and can be located elsewhere as needed, but for now let's focus on above.

In WS_FTP, when you type -al into blank field to right, this file name will become visible. The best plan is to download file, add above code, then upload and overwrite original. (The reason for downloading first is to be certain you hold whatever file may already contain.)

Creating Files

What I did next was create a file, yleftnav.html, containing all content in left column of a page. Then on each page, I replaced content in that column with following.

It is little thing you see on your Location bar (History/Address bar) when you visit a web site, on left of http://. For example, if you view a site through Internet Explorer, you see an e superimposed over a blank white paper sheet. The icon also shows up when you press CTRL+D to save link in your Favorites folder. I think icon is showed anywhere you store link, whether on Desktop or some other place.

But some web masters prefer to have their own icon. Apart from being an ego issue, it makes web site memorable, and more prominent in list of hundreds of Favorite links (gosh! do you ever visit them?!), or repulsive if you make an ugly icon

COMPATIBILITY

It only works with IE5 or higher versions. Otherwise browsers like Netscape Navigator and Opera do not support such an indulgence. Well, to be frank I haven't checked with current versions (I have IE5, Netscape 4.7 and Opera 5 on my machine). But last time I read, more than 75% surfers are using IE5 or plus these days.

MAKING THE ICON

In following steps, you can create an icon from your web site. This reminds me, a more complex icon can be created by a software like Microsoft Photodraw where you can first enlarge view without distorting pixels, create icon, and then reduce to normal size and then paste it into an icon editor. Look out for a similar editor if you don't have it.

Take care that icon you make/draw/scan/steal has a dimension of 16 x 16 pixels. Preferably, in 8-bit color.