Whether you have a personal web page, manage several sites, or just
surf the World Wide Web, you always want faster loading web pages.
The savvy webmaster knows all the tricks for reducing the size of
graphics: selecting the best compression ratio for JPEGs or the optimal
bit-depth for GIFs. Keeping images large enough to view but small
enough to load quickly.
The key, according to Web Site Garage, is for your page to download
in under 20 seconds using a 28.8 modem.
We've all seen pages that don't. Or, more likely, tried to visit
pages that took too long, then gave up in frustration. We're impatient
with slow pages.
Thanks to Mizer by Antimony Software, there's now a
way to compress HTML files as effectively as graphics.
For instance, most pages on my site are designed like this one: a
banner at the top, a navigation bar on the left, and a main content box
on the right. A snippet of HTML code in Claris Home Page (my design
program of choice) looks like this:
<HTML>
<!--This file created by Claris Home Page version 3.0-->
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Review: Mizer</TITLE>
<META NAME=GENERATOR CONTENT="Claris Home Page 3.0">
<X-CLARIS-WINDOW TOP=42 BOTTOM=522 LEFT=4 RIGHT=644>
<X-CLARIS-TAGVIEW MODE=minimal>
<LINK REL=STYLESHEET TYPE=text/css HREF=/styles.css>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<P><!--#include virtual="../ad.shtml" --></P>
<DL>
<DT><CENTER><TABLE BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=6>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN=top WIDTH=158 BGCOLOR="#FFCC33">
<P><!--#include virtual="../menu.shtml" --></P>
</TD>
<TD VALIGN=top>
<H1><CENTER>Review: Mizer</CENTER></H1>
<H2><CENTER>Compress Your Web Pages</CENTER></H2>
<P>Whether you have a personal web page, manage several
sites, or just surf the World Wide Web, you always want
faster loading web pages.</P>
<DL>
<DT><CENTER>
<HR>
<back to <A HREF="index.shtml">Low End Mac
Reviews</A>></CENTER></DT>
</DL>
<P><!--#include virtual="../footer.shtml" --></P>
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</CENTER></DT>
</DL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Notice how much white space is used to make the code easy to
follow.
Mizer gets rid of unnecessary code such as leading spaces and empty
lines. The same code run through Mizer looks like this (I've forced it
to break at 80 characters to keep it on the page):
<HTML><!--This file created by Claris Home Page version
3.0--><HEAD><TITLE>Review: Mizer</TITLE><META NAME=GENERATOR
CONTENT="Claris Home Page 3.0"><X-CLARIS-WINDOW TOP=42 BOTTOM=522 LEFT=4
RIGHT=644><X-CLARIS-TAGVIEW MODE=minimal><LINK REL=STYLESHEET
TYPE=text/css HREF=/styles.css></HEAD><BODY
BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF><P><!--#include virtual="../ad.shtml"
--></P><DL><DT><CENTER><TABLE BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=6><TR><TD
VALIGN=top WIDTH=158 BGCOLOR=#006600><P><!--#include
virtual="../menu.shtml" --></P></TD><TD VALIGN=top><H1><CENTER>Review:
Mizer</CENTER></H1><H2><CENTER>Compress Your Web
Pages</CENTER></H2><P>Whether you have a personal web page, manage several
sites, or just surf the World Wide Web, you always want faster loading web
pages.</P><DL><DT><CENTER><HR><back to <A HREF=index.shtml>Low End Mac
Reviews</A>></CENTER></DT></DL><P><!--#include virtual="../footer.shtml"
--></P></TD></TR></TABLE></CENTER></DT></DL></BODY></HTML>
Antimony anticipates hand coded HTML files will drop in size by
about 12%, while code produced with WYSIWYG programs (such as Home
Page), will lose about 22% in size. And it takes just seconds to
compress a whole folder full of files on my Power Mac.
Advantages of size reduction:
- The file takes less space on your hard drive.
- The file takes less time to upload to your web site.
- The server spends less time reading the file.
- The server can process the file more quickly since it doesn't have
to spend any time ignoring unnecessary spaces, blank lines, etc.
- The visitor receives the page more quickly.
- If you are billed by megabytes served, you can also save
money.
I was skeptical about Mizer, but realizing that Low End Mac is
designed for people with older Macs and often older, slower modems, I
decided to try it. After all, they promised to refund my $69 if it
didn't live up to expectation.
It did.
I created a small spreadsheet in ClarisWorks to track file and
folder size before and after Mizer. A paper I wrote on Dutch Reformed churches in Canada,
which is mostly text, dropped from 101,374 bytes to 88,835 - a 12.4%
reduction. A research paper I did on local Christian Reformed churches did
a bit better, dropping from 138,767 bytes to 119,816. This shaved 13.7%
from the original file size. Considering these pages were served on a
Mac IIfx, that little bit can be really helpful.
But that was nothing compared with Low End Mac and other sites I
maintain. Compressing entire folders such as Mac News Today (since
closed) and Mac Merit Badge, I saw compression of 25-26%. (Most of my
pages on MacTimes use tables, which benefit greatly from Mizer.)
A couple other pages that make heavy use of tables dropped by
37%.
Overall, my experience with Mizer shows that pages such as this one
average 24-28% smaller after running them through Mizer.
And running them through Mizer is a breeze, since it's a
drag-and-drop application. Just drag a file or an entire folder onto
the icon and let it do it's thing. Mizer can even make backup copies of
your pre-Mizered file (just in case it damages the file during
compression) and a log file telling you how much you've saved. I've
rarely seen Mizer damage a file - mostly when I'm impatient and click
elsewhere while it's compressing a batch of files (not a folder).
In my opinion, Mizer was worth the $69 it cost. Antimony Software
provides free upgrades - three since I first bought the program. It's
worth the price of admission just because it makes my pages load
faster.
Another side of the savings
But there's another advantage that commercial sites can see. If you
pay for site hosting based on the amount of data served, Mizer can save
you money.
Checking site statistics for the MacTimes Network, I note that 47.3%
of bytes downloaded are HTML files, 47.2% are graphics of one type or
another, and the remaining 5.5% are .pl, MIDI, or stuffed files.
I don't know how much space all of that takes up, but it's a lot of
files. For argument's sake, let's say your web site is 100 MB in size
and over the course of a month it serves 10GB of data. If 47% of that
is pages using tables, which can be compressed an average of 26% by
Mizer, you can reduce storage space by about 12 MB or 12%. At the same
time, you're using 12% less bandwidth, which should save you 12% on
your monthly server fee.
Again, for the sake of argument, let's say you're currently paying
$50 per month to have your site hosted -- and this is based completely
on bandwidth used. Mizer would save you $6 per month, paying for itself
within a year.
And all you need to do to see this benefit is have Mizer compress
your HTML files before you upload them.
Update
Since first writing this review, I have discovered one great
drawback to using Mizer: it removes the quote marks around commands
such as <A HREF="index.shtml">.
On the plus side, it works and helps reduce file size. But on the
minus side, it is not proper HTML 4.0 syntax. HTML 4.0 says the quote
marks have to be there.
Since it works, and since Claris Home Page (my current program of
choice) automatically puts the quote marks back, this may not seem like
a problem. But I also use two other programs to supplement Home Page:
BBEdit Lite, a powerful free text editor, and Site Ranger, a utility
that automatically updates links as I move or rename files on my
site.
If I know every page has been condensed with Mizer, BBEdit isn't a
problem. I just have to remember that the quote marks won't be there
when I do a search and replace.
But Site Ranger, like HTML 4.0, requires the presence of those quote
marks. If the reference doesn't have quote marks, Site Ranger doesn't
recognize them and won't automatically update links. This forced me to
spend hours opening and saving each HTML file on my site in Home Page
before make a few changes in site structure when I moved to
lowendmac.net.
Finally, there's a new browser out called iCab. So far, I really
like it, although it is incomplete. One nice feature is a smiley face
that appears if the page you are viewing is 100% HTML 4.0 compliant.
Between Claris Home Page, which introduces some oddities of its own,
and Mizer, not a single page on my site gets the smiley; instead, iCab
shows a frowning red face.
Still, until Mizer can leave the quote marks in place or I find a
similar program that leaves them where HTML 4.0 says they have to be,
I'll continue using Mizer. After all, it's not often that I restructure
my website - that would be hard on anyone with bookmarks or links.
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