Favicon
Ok, so there is another file in the "includes" folder we haven't talked about yet. This file is called the "favicon.ico". It stands for favorite icon. This is a little tiny picture icon that is displayed next to a website address in the address bar of a web browser. It is also displayed next to the name of a website when a visitor bookmarks the site into their favorites.
SSo how do you make a favicon? Well there are several ways to do it. The easiest way is to go to the website http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/ and use their online tool. They do a great job of making a favicon from the logo of your site, and they do it for free.
Once on the website, click on the "Browse" button to navigate the site to your logo. When the site knows the path to the logo, click on the "Generate FavIcon.ico" button. It may take a few minutes, but the site will create your new favicon and open up a new window to allow the zip file to be downloaded.
When done downloading the zip file, unzip the file and upload the "favicon.ico" file into both the main directory, and the images directory located in the include folder of your website. Then upload the file to your web server in both the main directory where your index.php file is, and the images directory which is located in the "includes" directory.
The other way to do it is by making your own icon. To do this, you will need an icon editor. There are some on CNET. (Click on the Downloads Tab at the top of the page.) and they have a bunch of them that are both inexpensive and free.
When making the favicon, there are some very specific rules. The image can only be 16x16 pixels. It also can only be a 16 color (4 bit) image. When finished making a favicon, upload the file to the web server in both the main directory where your index.php file is, and the images directory which is located in the "includes" directory.
Now here is the tricky part. In order to see your new favicon, clear your web browsers history. After the browsers history is cleared, close your browser. Then open up your website to see the favicon in action. If it didn't work the first time, do it several times to get it to work properly. Don't worry. New visitors to your website won't have to do this. You do because the old one was resting in memory and had to be deleted to make way for the new one.
