BASE HREF for nav links?

[webvandals]

Pretty easy one:

I want to use a php include for the nav on all 20 or so pages of my site, that way I can edit just one file if want to add a button or something.

Trouble is, some pages are one level deeper in a directory which means all the relative links break.

I'd use absolute links, but then I can't test locally unless I first change all the links in the nav file.

So my question is, how do you create a simple nav file that works from any directory on the site, both locally and live. Ideally I'd like to use absolute links referenced from the top of the site. Any thoughts?

Are there any negative side effects to using BASE HREF? Okay for search engines?

[gregmiller]

hello webvandals,
If you are reluctant in using BASE HREF why dont you declare a varaiable say $reference and store in the base address in it like $reference = "http://localhost" to test locally and replace it with $reference = "http://yourdomain/relativepath/" its just the same as using BASE HREF....only that you can edit it in the include file

Greg