How to change default lengthy URL in Joomla 2.5

[mvallath]

By default joomla creates lengthy URL's when selecting article pages.. Here is a default url when i select an article in my joomla website www.otnyathra.com

Most of this information is totally not required for the end user. It gives a feeling that the article is so many levels deep.

http://www.otnyathra.com/using-joomla/e ... ndhar.html

If we modify and remove some of the SEO settings and use the Unicode alias.. it looks like this..

http://www.otnyathra.com/index.php?opti ... Itemid=260

How do I get rid of so many levels of nesting.. Since this article is directly accessed from the home page, I would like to see something simple like
http://www.otnyathra.com/113-jallandhar.html

Appreciate your help.

Thanks

Murali

[montano]

Remember to change your htaccess.txt to .htaccess, Turn on SEF URLs in Global Configuration. Use mod_rewrite if your server allows.
If you want a direct link to the article, you must create a top level menu item. It does not have to have a menu module assigned. For example, I create a menu called SEO Links, and in it I put my most popular articles. If I also want to have a link via the main menu, nested under something else...that link is created as a Menu Item Alias.

[MuraliVallath]

i have renamed the htaccess.txt to .htaccess and eabled URL option in the global configuration panel

Now i get the following error tying to access the article..

-------------
Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator and inform them of the time the error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.