getting html5 boilerplate .htaccess file to work on dreamhost site - html

Question

Completely new to Apache.
Trying to remove ".html" extension from urls by adding the following lines (found here):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.html [NC,L]
to this (including ^ those lines now):
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
# Enable the `FollowSymLinks` option if it isn't already.
# Options +FollowSymlinks
# If your web host doesn't allow the `FollowSymlinks` option, you need to comment it out or remove it, and then uncomment the `Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch` line, but be aware of the performance impact.
# Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
RewriteBase /
# RewriteOptions <options>
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} =on
RewriteRule ^ - [env=proto:https]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^ - [env=proto:http]
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.html [NC,L]
</IfModule>
But the .html extensions remain in the visible urls.
I couldn't find any info on whether Dreamhost allows FollowSymLinks, but I tried it enabled, as well as SymLinksIfOwnerMatch, I also tried disabling RewriteBase / and even removing the mod rewrite if statement. I'm placing the file in my website's root directory, and tried placing it in the parent folder to that too with no results. Anybody have an idea what I'm doing wrong?
The full .htaccess is here.
Solved:
I still don't know why the above code didn't work, but I just used the code from Dreamhost's wiki instead:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /.*index\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(.*)index$ http://Your_Site_Url_Goes_Here.com/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/$ http://Your_Site_Url_Goes_Here.com/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /(.+)\.html\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(.+)\.html$ http://Your_Site_Url_Goes_Here.com/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^([a-z]+)$ /$1.html [L]
</IfModule>
Be mindful that the above code may cause new problems, as it is causing one of my pages to return a 403 Forbidden error, but I think that's a whole other problem irrelevant to my original question so I consider this a solve and will fix the above code when I find a solution elsewhere.
Symlinks seem to have been irrelevant.
.htaccess file goes in >mySite.com directory, rather than the directory that contains this directory

Answer 1

DreamHost wiki has a guide on how to use Apache redirects and rewrites. The guide mentions FollowSimylinks
You should also check the Apache error logs to see what fails (and edit your question to be more specific about the result you see in the browser).