Could you please give me a an example of how you included your .shtml files. .... 
Hi I use the following to SSI include files
<!--#include file="ssi/filenamehere.ssi" -->
I always have a folder SSI which contains common code for things like the META data, header, menu, footer, counter code. I give my SSI files the extension .ssi to distinguish them from other types of static HTML.
If I build a site that needs dynamic features I tend to use PHP include calls.


