htaccess error with redirect when not starting with variables

Question

RedirectMatch (.*).html$ index.php?id=$1

This solution doesn't seem to work and I cant figure out why. Altho, this:

RedirectMatch (.*).htm$ $1.html

Worked. What wrong with variable not being the first literal in replacement url?

Answer 1

Have you tried RewriteRule from mod_rewrite instead?

RewriteEngine On    
RewriteRule (.*).html$ index.php?id=$1 

Here's the documentation: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html