How to insert text file into template file?

Activ can do it, but I ususally use a bit of Javascript.  Try creating a file called footer.js, and paste this into it:

document.write("<hr>" );
document.write("<center>[&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href='index.htm'>home</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href='index.htm'>page 1</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
href='index.htm'>page 2</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href='index.htm'>page 3</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href='index.htm'>page 4</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a

href='index.htm'>page 5</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;]</center>" );
document.write("<hr>" );

....and, call it from your page like this:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="footer.js">
</SCRIPT>

Make a template file, say called template.html

Where the text will go, put something like TEXTHERE

Next cut everything above TEXTHERE and put in a separate file in include directory, say top.inc

Cut everything below TEXTHERE and put in a separate file in include directory say, bot.inc

Make Activ Variables top and bot which correspond to these 2 files

For each actually content file, just do

[={top}]
Type the text
[={bot}]

Then enable PreProcessor for all files

Alaska:  I prefer not to use Javascript, but thanks for trying to help.

Sunil Tanna:  Please explain to me again.  I would prefer to do it your way.

I have 3 files:
header (top.html)
text (index.html)
footer (bottom.html)

I want those 3 files to appear on one page in the eBook.

Maybe, if you could compile an eBook for me using my files, then I could download it and see how you did it?

The files are at these locations:

http://www.joyfuldays/book/bottom.html
http://www.joyfuldays/book/index.html
http://www.joyfuldays/book/top.html
http://www.joyfuldays/book/backgade.gif
http://www.joyfuldays/book/bell-icn.gif
http://www.joyfuldays/book/butterfly.gif
http://www.joyfuldays/book/horizontal.gif
http://www.joyfuldays/book/santa-12.jpeg

Many thanks!  I really would like to learn how to do this, it would make it so much easier and use less space if I could insert headers and footers into my book pages.

Going back to my solution, here's how I'd do it

I can't quite do it with the links from bookdealers' site, as the pages all contain the header tags, etc. (so these pages would need editing before you could use my concept)

Let's try it another way. Remember I am using [ ]  instead of greater-than/less-than signs in this post, because I don't want to post real HTML

A normal HTML page would look something like this

[HTML]
[HEAD]
[TITLE]Page Title Here[/TITLE]
[/HEAD]
[BODY]
[More HTML tags etc for top of page design]
The text of the page would go here
[More HTML tags etc for bottom of page design]
[/BODY]
[/HTML]

Right now, if I had two similar pages, the HTML code for both pages would probably be virtually identical except for the little bit which says "The text of the page would go here".

So if I had index.htm and page2.htm then both files would be nearly identical, except for that little bit.

For example index.htm might contain

[HTML]
[HEAD]
[TITLE]Page Title Here[/TITLE]
[/HEAD]
[BODY]
[More HTML tags etc for top of page design]
This is the index page
[More HTML tags etc for bottom of page design]
[/BODY]
[/HTML]

And page2.htm might contain
[HTML]
[HEAD]
[TITLE]Page Title Here[/TITLE]
[/HEAD]
[BODY]
[More HTML tags etc for top of page design]
This is page2
[More HTML tags etc for bottom of page design]
[/BODY]
[/HTML]

So first, I cut the top part (above the text) and put it into a separate file (in the include folder), called top.inc.  This file would contain

[HTML]
[HEAD]
[TITLE]Page Title Here[/TITLE]
[/HEAD]
[BODY]
[More HTML tags etc for top of page design]

Next I do the same for the bottom part, and make bot.inc in the include folder containing

[More HTML tags etc for bottom of page design]
[/BODY]
[/HTML]

Next I set up an Activ Variable called top, which includes HTML from top.inc.  And a variable called bot, which includes HTML from bot.inc.

Next when I create index.htm, I realize that I don't need to duplicate all that stuff, I just reference top and bot :-

NOTE: Really use square brackets for this

[={top}]
This is the index page
[={bot}]

And when I do page2.htm, I create page2.htm like this

NOTE: Really use square brackets for this

[={top}]
This is page2
[={bot}]

Finally, in the compiler, I go to the Files tab, and make sure the PreProcessor is enabled for both index.htm and page2.htm

Now what I have done, is allow me to create 2 pages on a common template (but I could follow the same principle for more HTML pages too), without duplicating lots of HTML code.

Finally to answer why I couldn't quite do this with bookdealers' top.html and bottom.html  ....