Review: Part I: Rage Software WebCrusher

Many of the web page design applications, such as Adobe GoLive, Dreamweaver, or iWeb, have a tendency to add HTML or CSS code that isn’t really needed. Your graphics might be large and need to go on a diet as well. This extra code and bloated graphics take up space on your web server and can slow your web page load time. You may not think this is a big deal if you have oodles of server space, but unfortunately, we who have high-speed modems forget that there are still people using dial up services. There are ways to design pages for those with 56K modems; you know, the kind that attach to a phone line and make the harsh squawk sound when they connect. These folks experience very slow load times, and WebCrusher helps that immensely. You can also help pages load more quickly on a mobile phone.

There are many things that you can do to optimize web pages on your site and that’s where Rage Software’s WebCrusher helps. WebCrusher optimizes pages and is especially useful for those not familiar with HTML or CSS code. If you use visual programs to create web pages, such as Dreamweaver or iWeb, you maybe able to look at the created code and touch it up or skinny it down, but it’s time consuming and unfortunately, lots of people don’t know how.

WebCrusher fixes 17 common problems. Just go into the preferences and check the click boxes to turn on or off items that you can automatically fix. Some items just delete unneeded spaces or optimize JavaScript, CSS, and PHP code. It can also remove comments you added and no longer need. If there are files that you don’t want touched, you can have WebCrusher exclude them from the process.

WebCrusher provides 26 different choices to optimize tags in the preferences also. You can remove unneeded close tags or replace one tag with another. For example, replace the strong tag with the bold tag. You can also remove META information. Some HTML checkers prefer one tag over another or require some of the information that WebCrusher can remove, so make sure your code still meets the HTML specs you use on your site, such as the HTML 3 or HTML 4 specification. The World Wide Web Consortium offers a free Markup Validation Service, if you need it.

The size of your graphics also effects the load time of your pages. Web graphics don’t have to be 300dpi resolution. If you need to use larger files, it makes more sense to create a 72 or 100dpi version for your page and add a link to download the larger version. When you reduce the quality settings of JPEG and PING files from maximum to normal or minimum quality, you dynamically reduce the size of your graphics, often without effecting how the image looks on the screen. webcrush13-open.jpg

How it works

WebCrusher couldn’t be easier to use. Open WebCrusher and drag the folder with your site into the simple dialog.


First Dialog - Just Drop in Your Web Folder
Next, open the preferences from the tools menu or the Application menu and select which items you want compacted and optimized.


Optimization Preferences
Your dialog shows you a list of all your pages, and you simply press the Go button to activate the program and compress your files.


Web Folder File List

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