OptimaHTML is a high-quality tool for reducing the size of your web pages and optimizing HTML code to make pages load faster in browsers. OptimaHTML has several features which you won’t find anywhere else. It removed unneeded tags, spaces and carriage returns from the HTML code, without making any changes to HTML documents’ layouts. If you want, you can also remove style-affecting tags (Bold, Italic, Underline, TeleText and so on).
You have full control over what you want removed from HTML documents. You might want to remove just tags which don’t affect the page’s outlook and layout (which is the default setting). This way you can make pages load faster without losing the actual appearane of the page. Or perhaps you want to compact the page by removing all possible “extra” tags, including style tags -- this is great for reducing the overall size of your pages to save server space. No-one has unlimited webspace, except for big commercial companies, so one has to think about compacting methods. Of course this compacting style has its costs, but it makes files really small and hyperfast.
Even though the application name suggests otherwise, also files other than HTML documents can be optimized and compacted - namely images. Image files are the thing that take up most of the space on your web server - unless, of course, you distribute even hevier media, for example movies. OptimaHTML lets you remove the resource fork of an image file, so that all that remains is the actual image. The data that gets removed is only used by the Mac OS system software - web browsers doesen’t use resource forks at all. After removing the resource fork from images, your image files could be more than 50% smaller than they originally were. With no quality loss whatsoever.
One of the best things about OptimaHTML is the fact that you don't need to know HTML at all to use the application. You can get information about the tags and other data (like carriage returns) you can remove with a simple mouse click. OptimaHTML lets you view pages after you've opened them, saving you time in the process of finding the right HTML file. You can also preview an optimized file, even before saving the file. You can have both files, the original and the optimized copy, open in a browser and see what was changed - if anything at all was.
You don't need to worry about losing the original file, since you can save compacted and optimized files under new names, and until you've saved the file, OptimaHTML stores the optimized file in a temporary file and the original data will not be overwritten unless you choose to overwrite it.
How to optimize files
The user interface (or UI) in OptimaHTML is very self-explanatory and straightforward. When you start up the app, you will be presented with the file/folder selection window (if your copy is not registered, you will see the startup registration notice first).
You can select the file you want to optimize by dropping it into the window below or by selecting it with “Select file”-button.
Please note that if the selected file's size is over 100 kilobytes, optimizing may take longer than 30 seconds, especially in the 68k version of OptimaHTML. Try giving OptimaHTML a larger memory partition in the Finder to speed up optimization times. After selecting a file, the window will change it's look and new buttons will appear.
View file - To open the selected file in your web browser, click here.
Optimize file - Click this button to optimize the selected file. If the AutoSave feature is not enabled, you will see the document window. If it is enabled, the document will be saved automatically to the selected folder. More info about the AutoSave feature can be found in the Preferences section.
Select new file - You can select a new file by clicking this button. The currently selected file won't be optimized.
Select folder- You can to go folder optimization mode by clicking this button.
After clicking Optimize file, a file comparison window will appear. The window consists of a tab panel with two tabs, one for the original file, and one for the optimized one. You can switch between the tabs to see the files’ HTML code. This window is resizable, so if you want to see more of the code without scrolling, just resize the window.
In the document window's title you can see the optimized file's name. In this window you can run searches within the optimized and the original files. Another very important and handy feature of OptimaHTML is easy “description” and “keywords” Meta tag handling. You can add and/or change these tags with a single mouse click! These invisible tags are used by search engines to find your page in Internet. If your page does contain these Meta tags already, you will see them in the description and keywords text fields.
You can view the optimized file in your web browser by clicking “View optimized file” button. If you want to view a detailed report of the removed tags, their amounts and optimization savings, click the “View report” button. The report supports drag & drop, so you can save the whole report or parts of it for later reference if you like.
To save the optimized file, click the “Save file” button.
How to optimize folders
OptimaHTML can optimize whole folders for you. Optimizing folders is just as easy as optimizing single files. The only difference is that you won't see the document window, so if you want to view, add or change Meta tags, you must use single file optimizing.
When you have clicked the "Select folder" button (or dropped a folder into OptimaHTML’s window), you will see several buttons:
View folder - You can use OptimaHTML's built-in folder browser to quickly and easily to view the contents of the selected folder. Using the same browser, you can also select new files for optimizing.
Optimize folder- Click this button to optimize all of the HTML files in the selected folder. Optimized files will be saved in the “OptimaHTML Optimized files” folder inside the selected folder.
Select new file - With this button you can choose a new file to optimize (and go to file optimization mode). The currently selected folder won't be optimized.
Select new folder - With this button you can choose a new folder to optimize. The currently selected folder won't be optimized.
After clicking the “Optimize folder” button, OptimaHTML will start folder optimizing. Depending of the amount of HTML files, the size of OptimaHTML’s RAM partition, the processor's speed and and the size of the folder’s HTML files, optimization process can take from couple of seconds to couple of minutes. A folder with 10 average-sized documents is optimized in approximately 5 seconds with a Mac with a fast PowerPC processor.
After the optimizing process you will see a short report of optimization results (how many characters were removed and the file size percentage saved.)
How to optimize images
To optimize an image file, drop it into the OptimaHTML window or select it using the “Select file” push button. After you have selected the file, click “Optimize file” to optimize it, or “Select new file” to open another file.
Once you click “Optimize file”, the file comparison window will appear, with the file size and the picture files in the tab panels. You can compare the files by clicking the tabs to change the tab panel state. The window is resizeable, so if the image is large, resize the window to see it in full size.
Preferences
OptimaHTML’s settings are done in the Preferences window. Preferences can be accessed from the Edit menu or by hitting cmd+’H’. Notice those little ‘i’-buttons? They are info buttons, which give you short descriptions about every setting and tag.
Pay attention to the text above all preferences sets -- it gives you information about the current set.
Report settings - These settings are related to reports, which are showed after single-file optimization.
• Include all tags - If this option is selected, the report will include information about all tags (even if you didn't select all tags from preferences).
• Include selected tags only - If this option is selected, the report will include information about tags which were selected from the preferences. This option is selected by default.
• Include removed tags only - If this option is selected, the report will include only information about tags which were actually removed. This option keeps reports short and to-the-point.
File format settings - With these settings you the control creator codes of optimized documents. Creator codes are four-character codes, which are used by the Mac OS. They inform the Mac OS that the document should be opened with a specific application when it is double-clicked.
• Same creator as in original document - If this option is selected, the creator code of the optimized documents will be same as that of the original documents.
• Change creator to...-If you select this option, you can define a creator code yourself. To define a creator code, either type it into the text field next to the option of Changin the creator, or select one of the predefined programs listed in a pop-up menu. If you select one, you will in the process tell OptimaHTML your creator code choice, even if you don’t really know the code!
AutoSave
With the AutoSave feature you can optimize several files quickly without detailed reports. However, if you want to add or change description and keyword Meta tags, you should use single-file optimizing, without using AutoSave, because with AutoSave-feature on, OptimaHTML doesn't show the document window where these invisible tags are added.
To enable AutoSave, select the AutoSave destination folder by clicking the “Select...” button in preferences. That's the folder where optimized files will be saved automatically. This data is written into OptimaHTML’s preferences file, so OptimaHTML will “remember” the destination folder.
When you've selected the AutoSave folder, check the "Enable AutoSave" checkbox to enable AutoSave (if this checkbox isn't checked, the AutoSave function won't be available, but your selected folder will be kept in memory).
Then click the OK button to save your preferences. If you have enabled the AutoSave function, you can optimize several files with simply pressing the Enter key a few times and selecting files between those keypresses. Hit Enter once-select a file. Hit it again - optimize file. Hit it again - and you are selecting a new file. Simple and fast!
Default and optional tags
In OptimaHTML you have full control over what you would like to be removed or not. Although you can choose every tag, OptimaHTML's default settings are powerful, and what's most important, secure, in terms of maintaining the pages’ original appearance. OptimaHTML's default settings sets all tags from "Default tags" group and Extra Spaces and Double Breaks from "Optional tags" group. With these settings your pages should get as small as possible without losing any data and layout information.
You can select and deselect tags simply by checking or unchecking checkboxes near the tags. Click the "i" button and OptimaHTML will show you short info about the associated tag.
Registering OptimaHTML
OptimaHTML 1.5 is a shareware product, which means that you can try it for free, but you have to pay the registration fee if you continue to use it past the 15-day trial period. Registration fee is 8 USD.
The unregistered version of OptimaHTML 1.5 shows registration reminders at application startup (with a 10-second delay) and at shutdown. Folder optimizing is also limited to 3 files at once.
By registering OptimaHTML you will get free updates and technical support, and special offers for future MacZ products. Registering will also remove the reminders and folder optimization limits from the program.
You can register OptimaHTML by filling in the fields in the Register application that comes with OptimaHTML. The application will generate a registration form which you can postal mail, fax or email to Kagi, the payment processing service. You can also register online, using your credit card, at the online registering page provided by Kagi. The URL of this web site is <http://order.kagi.com/?UM1>. If your web browser supports secure SSL pages, you can use <http://order.kagi.com/?UM1&S> for a secure connection.
If you choose not to register after the trial period of 15 days you must delete OptimaHTML from all of your disks, hard drives and other storage devices and extenal media.
You are always welcome to contact MacZ software concerning any question related to our products. MacZ software wants to thank you for trying our products and we hope that you will support us and register your copy of OptimaHTML.
This software is provided "as is" and without warranty of any kind, implied or expressed. When using it you assume all responsibility for any damages caused, directly or indirectly, by its use. If you find some problem using this software, e-mail us about it, and we'll do our best to fix it.
