You wrote: >> Using standards, which is the best way to achieve this:
1. <!--#include virtual="/included.htm" --> 2. <!--#include virtual="included.htm" --> 3. <!--#include file="included.html" --> >> I don't think the way you include has anything to do with standards. *What* you include does...that is, whatever you include will be rendered by the server when the page is requested, and delivered to the browser. If the contents of your include are not valid, your page will not be valid. And if you're a purist, you'll want to put the include call flush left, and maintain your indents within the include file, so that the generated code looks pretty too. :) As to which is more correct? It depends on the server. Apache prefers the virtual setting, while file is more typical for IIS. Relative paths aren't enabled in IIS6 by default for security reasons. Both are happy to include things within an include (e.g. include the SSI directive for current year next to the copyright symbol in a footer include) but IIS requires asp code to be included as an asp page, so that it is rendered in the right order. As has been mentioned, in the right environment you could also use php's require or include. But I do agree with the previous poster...the included file isn't (or shouldn't be) an html file. It should be a text snippet of html with or without other server directives. If you include an actual html file complete with header/body elements you'll definitely have problems validating. Most people use .txt, .inc, .ssi, or .asp* as extensions for these files. (*for IIS versions older than 6, because source code would be shown in the browser if you typed in the include address, but not if you used .asp) SSI on Apache: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/ssi.html#whataressi SSI on IIS: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Active_Server_Pages:Basic_ASP_Syntax Jona Web Services ME&A ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
