This is my first attempt at using an includes file (for my nagivation bar). Using instructions, I have this piece of code, which isn't working:

<?php
require($public_html . includes/nav.html);
?>;

I created an includes folder in my root directory and uploaded the file I created called nav.html
It has my navigation bar in it and only that. I have checked with my host and the root directory is def public_html

Here is the instruction on the website I am using:

1.Save the HTML for the common elements of your site to separate files. For example, your navigation section might be saved as navigation.html or navigation.php.
2.Use the following PHP code to include that HTML in each page.
<?php
require($DOCUMENT_ROOT . "path to file/include-file.html");
?>;
3.Use that same code on every page that you want to include the file.

Any suggests? thanks
thanks for both answers I have corrected this but still not working, so perhaps there is a trick to the nav.html file? This is what it looks like, it is simple and just in a table:

<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body>
<table style="background-color: rgb(204, 255, 255); width: 971px; height: 32px; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"

border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; text-align: center; color: black; background-color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">
<a href="index.html"><small><font color="#ffffff">Home</font></small></a></td>
<td style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; text-
It didn't all copy here but you see what is in it. I think the web editor added extra stuff when I opened the file and viewed it. I thought I just copied the table into the file. As in I want to insert just the table, not all this <body> <head> and meta stuff