posted on February 20, 2002 06:41:03 AM new
If you specify the width and height of all images using width="XX" height="XX" attributes the text can load before the images display. You can specify a lower-quality file to load first using the LOWSRC attribute. For example, have the page load a black and white or grayscale image first, then replace it with your regular pic. Of course, if you avoid using tables you won't have those problems.
posted on February 20, 2002 06:54:45 AM new
Agree: specifying the dimensions of the images will always help a browser load a page better. You cannot have it load text first and images next, there are no controls for that. In fact, some image hosting servers can get your images loaded faster than eBay can get all of their stuff loaded.
Disagree: avoid using tables. Most browsers do a "pre-read" of the page to determine what they have to load. Since a table is a defined structure, they can load it faster (using the same principle as specifying dimensions for images). Since this is entirely relative - based on the complexity of the tables and the browser - your results will vary.
I read in some 1500-page HTML book a long time ago that tables load faster. I time trialed it with several large listings (clearing cache between each attempt). If you are on a dial-up line, a long page of paragraphs with images will usually take longer to render than a page of nested tables with images.
posted on February 20, 2002 11:28:09 AM new
Oh my... the dreaded FrontPage. You can pre-load images using JavaScript, but that only adds to the bulky HTML you have using FrontPage. FrontPage is notorious for bloating your HTML code. Your descriptions will load much faster if you optimize the HTML. For example, take out all the font tags unless you really need it. I once reduced a 100k FrontPage HTML file down to 75k by removing all the excess code.
posted on February 20, 2002 02:24:02 PM new
I'm an HTML dummy and I have no idea what tables are. One thing I can share is I'd never wait 30+ seconds for a page to load or read a description that is more than a single paragraph long.
posted on February 21, 2002 06:08:07 AM new
I'm really not sure if there is any "shareware" to do this.
The only way I know that the HTML is reduced down to the bare minimum is to actually look at the code (using the HTML tab), make the change, and then check it using "Preview in Browser". This does take some time and practice.
I will let you know that you should not take the entire FrontPage-generated page and use that as your description - that's a hindrance rather than a help. You should only take what shows up between the BODY tags - and yes, that means selectively cutting and pasting.
But, once you have what you want, you've got a template, which can be reused with just a few changes.
[ edited by kahml on Feb 21, 2002 09:02 AM ]
You can pre-load images using JavaScript, but that only adds to the bulky HTML you have using FrontPage. FrontPage is notorious for bloating your HTML code. Your descriptions will load much faster if you optimize the HTML. For example, take out all the font tags unless you really need it. I once reduced a 100k FrontPage HTML file down to 75k by removing all the excess code.