Pre-load NavBars

[BrianE]

How do you do this in order to make them load faster on subsequent web pages.

[BrianE]

How do you do this in order to make them load faster on subsequent web pages.

[GOC]

Nav bars are in a separate place from the web pages. If you decide to use a page design from WebStyle, first of all set up a folder which will hold it. Call it, say, <span class="ev_code_RED">site</span>. Decide what you are going to have on your Nav Bars. Make them so that every page will have the same Nav Bars - so you may find that your Nav Bars will have a self referencing button: eg if you look at http://www.churchard.pwp.blueyonder....sions/Apr.html you will find that on the vertical nav bar there is a button for April - and it is highlighted. Make changes to the Webstyle template - colours, things which will be on every page, the tables layout, Nav Bars etc. Remove all the other content. Save as say, <span class="ev_code_GREEN">index</span>, in the folder, <span class="ev_code_RED">site</span>. (WebStyle will suggest a name based on the theme name - not generally a good idea). You will also need to save the page as a project. This is a convenience as it allows you to change things like gifs and jpegs later which otherwise would have to be recreated from scratch. Use a meaningful name.

If you look in the folder <span class="ev_code_RED">site</span> you will find a sub folder <span class="ev_code_BLUE">index_files</span> and the page <span class="ev_code_GREEN">index.html</span>. A good idea is, before you put content into <span class="ev_code_GREEN">index.html</span>, to save it again as <span class="ev_code_PURPLE">blank.html</span>. Then you can use blank to make more related pages. These will have the same page furniture you set up in WebStyle. And all the page furniture is in <span class="ev_code_BLUE">index_files</span>. You do not need to do anything to the contents of <span class="ev_code_BLUE">index_files</span>.

If you change the Nav Bars later, make sure you save them in <span class="ev_code_BLUE">index_files</span> - but WebStyle will try to do that anyway. And when you upload changes make sure that you upload the <span class="ev_code_BLUE">index_files</span> subfolder as well - because that is where WebStyle has stored any changes.

[BrianE]

Thanks for your prompt response.
What I'm trying to do is: pre-load the navbar images onto my local drive so that they load faster on subsequent web pages.
I have tried this using Java Script on one of my sites, and it appears to work.

[GOC]

Until you change them the Nav Bars are in the sub-folder index_files. Java scripts are a bit of a mystery to me (hence my liking for WebStyle) but surely once you have the nav bars on your computer, you have them on your computer.

[BrianE]

If you have photos or pictures, such as, banners or navigation bars that are on all of the pages on the site: it makes the loading quicker if you pre-load them onto your hardrive. You are correct in say once they are on my HD there are on my computer, but it is not me I'm trying to satisfy. It is the readers of my site: who will not have them on their HD. So I'm pre-loading the images to make the site run quicker on everyones computer.

[GOC]

I may be wrong, but I would have thought that with the system of having common Nav Bars, which I described above, once a reader has downloaded one page they will have the Nav Bars in their temporary internet cache. And they will not need to be downloaded again.
Or have I misunderstood?

[BrianE]

I have pre-loaded my images onto the readers HD thro JavaScript. This has resulted in my opening page loading a little slower (due to the pre-loads), but my navbars now load instantaneously on all of the other web pages. Whereas before they would load somewhat slower (i.e. button by button).My pre-loaded pictures also load instantaneously.
I read about pre-loads in a HTML book and I feel: what they recommended has certainly worked: my only concern was what to load for the Xara Navbars.The answer appears to be: pre-load all of the navbar .gif or .jpg files

[pcontour]

http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/eek.gif Say What Brian. Most interesting, obviously it worked for you. I want to learn more as like GOC this doesn't fit with my model of the web. If you are using IE can you go to TOOLS - INTERNET OPTIONS - Temporary Internet files - Settings. Which radio button have you got selected under "Check for never version of stored pages", if you don't mind. How much disk space are you using for your Temp Internet files folder.

I would like to test this before and after. Check out have my site looks to you in terms of the xara menu, again, if you don't mind. I've got a high speed connection and it is loading in an instant. http://members.rogers.com/kdhersey

[BrianE]

Further to pre-loading navbars I also pre-loaded some mouse overs: these also loading much faster and were less sluggish than they had previously been.
my settings are:-
Automatic
1224Mb.
If you are using high speed connection I would not expect to see any difference.