# desktop shortcut icon to my website



## sadie.king (May 2, 2006)

I hope I am posting this is the right place, I apologise if not, I wans't too sure where to put it.

I need to create a desktop icon that when clicked takes you to my website. 

But the icon needs to be able to be put onto cd so I can send to people for them to just be able to drag to their desktop or install so they can just click it to instantly get to my site.

Does anyone know how I can do this? or if I can't do it myself, how I would go about gettign it done?

Cheers
Sadie


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## smithy (May 2, 2006)

Well you can easily do it by dragging the url from the address text area in safari to the desktop. This will create a little file with an icon with HTTP on it, and once you double click it, it will open your browser and load the website. 

If you want to burn it to a CD, well you can just burn that file on the desktop to the  CD and only people on macs will be able to use the file most probably. But really if people are that interested of going to your website, i'm sure they can type in the url themselves, perhaps just write it down somewhere. If it's a long address, maybe find some free alternatives like ShortUrl.com
Hope that helps..


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## fryke (May 2, 2006)

Would such files work also on PCs running any variant of Windows and linux? Or is the ".webloc" file-type restricted to Mac OS X? Googling for this returns a blog entry which says they just work - but also utilities to create both .webloc and .url (Windows) files... So at least *I*'m not sure at this point. If you need those files to be compatible with other platforms, I'd try it out at least once on XP.


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## sadie.king (May 2, 2006)

Thank you, I have managed to drag the url to my deskop, although I would like to put my logo as the icon (which is an oval) with ftp below without it being on a white square.

I would like it to to keep this icon once loaded on to someone elses computer (including a PC if I can although i think i may need to make a separate one for PC - any help on this also appreciated)

I want it to be something people can just drop onto their desktop and click for instant access not have to muddle around with finding where they have written it or type it in or find their bookmark.

The idea is that I will send out a cd with a screensaver I will have created and my shortcut for them to drop onto their desktop, a promotional item for the launch of my website.


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## Mikuro (May 2, 2006)

Webloc files use the resource fork to store all of their data (just like text clippings), so I don't see how they could work on Windows. I've never tested it myself, though.

You can paste an icon onto it in the Finder, and it'll remain when viewed on any Mac. You'll need a special icon-making program to make really good icons, with transparency and stuff. Apple includes one called Icon Composer as part of their Developer tools. I'm sure you could find others on macupdate.com, but I can't recommend any myself.


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