If you use Internet Explorer 5, you may have noticed that when you bookmark certain Web sites, their own icon appears next to the siteÆs listing in Favorites (you can try this out yourself by bookmarking www.softwarepatch.com). This certainly beats the default IE5 logo and while it is not a very well documented fact, it is an extremely simple trick that works on any Web site. Note that this feature only works in IE5, so check your log files or hits counter reports for evidence of a significant number of IE5 visitors to your site. The aim is to create an icon 32 x 32 pixels wide, called favicon.ico This will be the icon that appears whenever someone bookmarks your site. HereÆs how to do it:

1. You will need a graphics program such as PaintShop Pro, which is on this monthÆs cover CD.

2. Design your icon. For best results, work with an image thatÆs about 300 x 300 pixels (make sure it is square). This size will shrink quite nicely and is much easier to adjust than trying to draw coloured dots on a 32 x 32 graphic. Keep the design very simple and donÆt try to put your siteÆs name on it, unless it has a one letter name!

3. After you have created the graphic, resize it to 32 x 32 pixels. You may want to adjust the brightness, as shrinking will make colours appear darker.

4. Reduce the number of colours to 256 or less.

5. Save the file as a bitmap file called favicon.bmp.

6. Grab a copy of the freeware program "Bitmap to Icon" from this monthÆs cover CD or download it from www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Campus/7779. Run the program, open favicon.bmp and press Save ICO. You will now have a file called favicon.ico. Do not rename it or change the file format.

7. Transfer your new icon to your Web site and put it in the same directory as your HTML files.

8. Go to your site and bookmark a page.

A final note: if you look at your log files, you may find entries for favicon.ico currently showing as "404" (file not found). If someone is using IE5 and they bookmark your site, then IE5 will request the favicon.ico file. If it is not present, then the logs record it rather unfairly as "Error 404" even though it is not strictly part of your site.