Here is a silly question

Hi, This is come thing that I have struggled with now and again. I usaually us php code to make it work, but was wondering how others deal with this I use includes in most of the web applications that I work on to include the header, footer, menu etc. The problem that I always run into as a project gets bigger is my links to pages. If all the files are in the root directory theres no problem. If I have some files in a folder and call my menu for example <? include("../menu.php"); ?> I have to call if from the parent directory. But then of course all the links are wrong. Root becomes the calling directory. I usually use a php variable to place the ../ if its needed. How does everyone else deal with this type of problem. I have a times places an extra copy of the footer, menu, header etc in each directory but it is a pain to change links when you have multiple locations to do it in. Thanks for any suggestions. I would be nice to have a simple way to have my include files in a common place that works and keeps the links right. Scandog