Frequently Asked Questions
about IconForge and ActivIcons
Q: What HTML tags need to be added to my web pages to make an .ico icon to be displayed for favorites bookmark links to my web pages? I downloaded IconForge and created my icon. I then put that file on my server that contains all my html files, but I cannot see the icon when I bookmark my web page.
- There are 2 ways to get your icon to show for your pages:
Method 1:
If you only want a single icon for all the pages on your site:
- save the icon with the filename: favicon.ico
- use your FTP program to copy the favicon.ico file to the root directory/folder. To be on the safe side, put another copy into every directory folder on your web server which contains the htm/html pages. Be sure to copy it in Binary mode if using FTP.
Method 2 (preferred):
You can also place a <link> code directly in the header of each html file (see example below). We usually recommend this method, since it seems the most likely to be adopted by browsers other than IE. Currently, favorites icons are displayed in Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Galeon, Mozilla/Netscape and perhaps other recent browser versions. Plus, you can use this if you want individual pages to have their own icons, and not use the default favicon.ico file.
In the example above, you would just put the <link rel=....> line into your html document, just after the <head> tag. If you want the "youricon.ico" file to be located in a different directory folder, just add the correct path.
Another Possibility:
It is possible that your browser is only not displaying the image due to a previous bookmark. Internet favorites icons are stored in the "C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files" folders. IE sometimes refuses to download a newer version, if a favorites bookmark to the site is already present on the system. Usually, the most reliable way to force it to re-read the icon is to:
- delete all favorites bookmarks to that site;
- clean IE's Temporary Internet files (go to Tools/Internet Options/General/Delete Files button);
- delete IE's History files (go to Tools/Internet Options/General/Clear History button);
- close down IE;
- run IconForge and click Edit/Rebuild Windows Icon Cache;
- reboot your system and re-bookmark the site.
Sometimes IE just refuses to immediately display the icon. In that case, asking someone else to bookmark might be best, or simply pointing the URL directly to the icon (e.g., http://www.yoursite.com/favicon.ico would let you know that the icon is at least available).
Also, to avoid having Windows trash your icon on some visitor's machines, we suggest using a multi-resolution .ico (an icon which contains several images). To do this, go to the "File" menu, then click "New" and choose "Multi-Resolution Icon" from the list. For a Favorites icon, we suggest including these resolutions: 16x16x16-colors, 16x16x256-colors, 32x32x16-colors, 32x32x256-colors. If you have an existing icon, you can open it and add it to the multi-resolution icon's window by clicking the green "+" button located under the Magnify slider.
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