Removing DotNetNuke Copyright Message from Pages

The aim of this article is to provide some guidance towards adding the images and more importantly some ideas on improving the delivery of these images to those who are browsing your web site.

With DotNetNuke it is easy to add images to your web site. It is a simple two step process:

1. Add the Image to the Web Site.
   We can add the image to the web site using the File Manager tab under the admin menu. For more information on performing this action see this article.
2. Add Image to Text Module.
   Using the Text/HTML module we are able to provide text and pirtorial content for our web page. If you are using InetnetExplorer (release 5.5 or later) then the editor for this module may be presented with a WYSIWYG interface. Included within the editor in the WYSIWYG presentation is an 'insert Image' icon, used to pick and define the details relating to an image.

Within the text editor we are able to adjust the image size either larger, or smaller than the original image which was uploaded to the server. Unfortunately the interface provided for controlling the image whilst it makes the task easy doesn't encourage us to consider all of the facts. I'll consider some of these below:

Resize an Image to Match the Final Presentation Size
It is a shame to see a web page where the images re observed to slowly load, only to discover on inspection that the image which has been downloaded is, say, over 2000 pixels wide and approaching 300KB. However, the image viewed on the web page is only 150 pixels wide. An image which is 132x176pixels may only be 6KB in size. This means that by reducing the image we can acheive a download speed 50 times quicker for the same presented image.

Reduce Image Quality if Possible
Most image editors provide the option of optimising the saved image size for the web. When saving an image for uploading to a server consider whether by degrading the quality of the image a fraction you might reduce the size of the saved image. Try saving the image at 90%, 80% and 70% quality. Can you see any difference when viewing the image? What difference has this made to the file size? don't forget that the smaller the file that has to be downloaded along with your web page, the faster the overall page will be presented.

Using a browser to reduce image width and height
Image editors tend to do a much better job of resizing an image than web browsers. why not do the job once by uploading the image at the same width and height to how you wish it to be viewed, rather than for it to be resized everytime someone views the image on their computer? The less work that the local computer needs to do, the faster a web page will be downloaded, and presented for viewing.

So what is the big concern about the total physical size of the images to be downloaded? If we consider our 300KB image on a 56K modem dial-up connection. This will take a little over 5 seconds to download, assuming perfect 56K transfer per second. Our reduced size image of 6KB will take approximately 1/10 sec. So by optimising the size of the images add to our web page we are able to create a faster more responsive web site. Many who use dial-up connections are paying per minute on their telephone bill.

Lastly don't forget to consider the server on which your web site is hosted. If your web site is very popular then if we take our examples above with reducing the size of the images, it is a little like increasing the capacity of the server, we will be able to cater for a higher number of hits on the server without observing a degradation in performance.

There is a default copyright message added to each DotNetNuke page

<!--*********************************************************************-->
<!-- DotNetNuke - http://www.dotnetnuke.com -->
<!-- Copyright (c) 2002-2005< -->
<!-- Shaun Walker - Perpetual Motion Interactive Systems Inc. -->
<!-- http://www.perpetualmotion.ca -->
<!-- sales@perpetualmotion.ca -->
<!--*********************************************************************-->

For a version 3 of DotNetNuke removal of this message is straightforward.

1. Login to the set of portals using the host account details.
2. Navigate to the Host Settings page under the Host menu.
3. Uncheck the checkbox Show Copyright Credits, under the Appearance heading.
4. Click on update.

The default DotNetNuke copyright message is now not shown. Note this will also remove the DotNetNuke version number added to page titles.

NAT Ocotber 2005 (Revised)