Changing menu buttons to text links

[mac-man]

As title... How do I convert my current menu buttons to text links.

I've just run Google's page speed and was seriously shocked how poorly my sites run in comparison to some Wordpress sites I've created recently. 37/100 for Actinic vs 92/100 for a Wordpress site.

Given Googles seeming importance on speed.... I'd like to improve the site.

Plus.... how do I 'leverage browser caching'?

Site is www.pedigreecharm.co.uk

[Duncan Rounding]

The actinic.css file is larger than all your images put together on your homepage - optimising that may save 40kish alone on an initial load.

Generally though your images are of reasonable size but could be better.

Here's one way to enable browser caching: http://goo.gl/0yyRh but it does rely on a server side module being installed.

[mac-man]

The actinic.css file is larger than all your images put together on your homepage - optimising that may save 40kish alone on an initial load.

Generally though your images are of reasonable size.

Here's one way to enable browser caching: http://goo.gl/0yyRh but it does rely on a server side module being installed.

Thanks Duncan

How do I optimise the actinic.css? Sorry for the noob question... I'm still a beginner on CSS. I can edit CSS files but have no ideas as to how to optimise them.

EDIT... we're using Actinic hosting... any ideas if this module is installed as standard?

[Duncan Rounding]

Dust-Me Selectors (Firefox Add-in) will help with this but test all pages well (including checkout) and backup well before pruning.

[mac-man]

Awww nuts... it's not compatible with FF 5. :-(

Thanks anyways....

Will see if I have a machine running an older version of FF

[Duncan Rounding]

It does work with FF5 but you need to hack the maxversion in the install.rdf file inside the xpi.

Download the xpi with IE and save the file. Open it with winzip or 7zip or similar and edit the install.rdf file to have <em:maxVersion>5.*</em:maxVersion> (in two places). Save back into the archive xpi file replacing the original. Now drag the xpi into FF5 and it should install. Restart FF.

I just tested it and it seems to run OK on my machine in FF5.

[mac-man]

Working on a Mac today.. will have a play on the laptop later. I don't seem to have anything to open the .xpi file on the Mac

[Duncan Rounding]

You can rename it from .xpi to .zip

[mac-man]

Thanks Duncan.

Opened the file and amended it... but can't find where to install it. I zipped it up again and changed the suffix back to .xpi

But I have no idea how to install it as there's no Firefox folder in the Macs apps folder. Just an application file. Pesky Macs....

I'll work on it on teh laptop as that's where my actinic install is anyway. But thanks for your help.

Back to the original question... is it easy enough to change the buttons for text links?

[Duncan Rounding]

You can just drag the xpi into FF and it will install.

You should be able to change the images to text links but there will be very little saving vs the aesthetics. You can also add titles to the images to help seo.

[leehack]

I think your image sizes are excessive, particularly your section images, the ones i looked at were approaching 20kb, they're only thumbnails and approx at least twice what they should be imo. Take a look at the image tutorial on my site to see the difference between optimised and unoptimised images. On a section page with 20 thumbnails, your pages could be approx half the size if not better of what they are.

The CSS in actinic is pretty poor (being addressed in v11 somewhat), but that's only part your problem, the work you have done is far more at fault IMO.

Adjusting the menu is a red herring and not the solution to this, if that is coded correctly it should only be one image at around 1.5kb being loaded which is miniscule.

[mac-man]

I think your image sizes are excessive, particularly your section images, the ones i looked at were approaching 20kb, they're only thumbnails and approx at least twice what they should be imo. Take a look at the image tutorial on my site to see the difference between optimised and unoptimised images. On a section page with 20 thumbnails, your pages could be approx half the size if not better of what they are.

The CSS in actinic is pretty poor (being addressed in v11 somewhat), but that's only part your problem, the work you have done is far more at fault IMO.

Adjusting the menu is a red herring and not the solution to this, if that is coded correctly it should only be one image at around 1.5kb being loaded which is miniscule.

Thanks Lee

Just checked a few and there's a wide descrepancy between image file sizes. Some as low as 3Kb some at 20Kb. site's been live a long time and various people have edited content. I need to go back through the folders, I guess, and run some PS actions on them.