Web site building Software Features

[KerriAnn]

Hi. I'm not sure if this was the appropriate place to be posting this question, but anyway...
Does anyone know alot about the specific features of the different web authoring programs such as dreamweaver, frontpage, etc...
I'd particularly like to know if any of them have features that will enable me to optimize my pages to load quickly and easily with dialup internet connections, as most of the users who will be visiting my site will likely have very slow connections. I don't know what these features would be called, but things like preloading images, and making text links and certain other simple features on the page functional even before the page is finished loading.
I have very basic html knowledge. Any help with this would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

[alvo]

Web pages are divided into two basic parts, the HTML code and images. The code always loads first because it tells the browser where everything goes. Text links are part of the HTML code, so there's no way to get those to appear before the HTML code loads, and if your page isn't enormous the code should load in a few seconds anyway, even on dialup.

After that optimizing is reducing the number and/or file size of the graphics that are on the page. Using the correct file type for images will allow help keep files from bloating in bytes (i.e. JPEG for photos, GIF for flat color graphics). You should aim for your home page to be around 20Kb maximum and the remainder of your site to be in the 30-40Kb max range. This will give reasonable load times for pages on dialup connections. As file sizes increase and load time follow, more and more people will leave raather than wait for the content to appear.

Pre-loading images isn't a good way to go as you have to know what page the visitor is going to go to next and load the images for that onto their computer. Otherwise you're using bandwidth for nothing and, if they're like me, loading other pages in tabs while I'm looking at something else, you're slowing down that for them with stuff they may never look at.