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ChangeAgent™ Time Savings
ChangeAgent™ helps you fix links up to 10 times faster
than using other methods. You can save over 7 hours for every
100 links fixed. At that rate, ChangeAgent pays for itself
within the the first 100 links you fix.
| Number of Broken Links
Fixed |
10 Links |
100 Links |
1000 Links |
Not using ChangeAgent
5 minutes/link |
50 minutes |
8 hours,
20 minutes |
83 hours,
20 minutes |
Using ChangeAgent
30 seconds/link |
5 minutes |
50 minutes |
8 hours,
20 minutes |
How We Calculate
Fixing a Link the Conventional Way
Some estimates of the time needed to fix a single instance of a
link are 10-30 minutes. This involves discovery of the broken
link, finding and examining the source of the broken link, figuring
out what went wrong and how to fix it, and finally, fixing it.
This may be an accurate number for fixing the first instance of
a unique broken link. However, a unique broken link usually
has siblings—several other individual links which point
to the same target. These siblings may be in the same file or in
other files in the site. There may be only one or two siblings,
or there may be hundreds. Once you have found the correct target
for a the first instance of a unique broken link you can fix the
other individual sibling links by finding them, opening them in
an editor, and repairing them, which is quicker than the full discovery
and exploration process (albeit tedious).
Your site may take more or less than this 10-30 minute estimate
for fixing a broken link. The time depends on many variables, including:
- Familiarity with the web site. The original author of a recently-created
site has a mental map of the site and can quickly resolve problems.
But if time has passed or the original author is not maintaining
the site, discovering the structure of the site can present a
steep learning curve.
- Size of the web site. The sheer size of a site increases the
complexity of the mental map required to track the site.
- Number of people contributing to the web site. When multiple
people work on a site, no one person has a complete mental map
of the site.
Sites we have seen usually average 2 instances of each unique link.
Given an unfamiliar or complex website, we estimate it takes 5
minutes per link to fix links without ChangeAgent.
Fixing a Link with ChangeAgent™
ChangeAgent™ integrates discovery, investigation, and fixing
into a single, smooth process. You can quickly investigate what
went wrong and what the possible fixes are. When you fix a link
using ChangeAgent, it is applied to all of the individual sibling
links of that unique broken link. You never need to open an editor,
launch a browser, or scan for files using Windows® Explorer.
We estimate it takes 30 seconds per link to fix links using
ChangeAgent.
The Proof is in the Process
If you try ChangeAgent™ the benefits will be clear. The following
is a procedural comparison that shows the efficiencies of using
ChangeAgent to fix links.
Not using ChangeAgent
Preliminary steps: |
|
Using ChangeAgent
Preliminary steps: |
- Launch a link reporting program and configure it for your
site.
- Generate the report of broken links.
|
|
- Launch ChangeAgent and configure it to track your site.
- Open the Fix All Links dialog (the first unique broken
link is automatically selected and the context of that link
is shown).
|
| |
|
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| For each individual
link: |
|
For each unique
link: |
- Find the next broken link in the output of the link reporting
program. (15 seconds)
- Switch applications to file manager to navigate
to the file containing the broken link. (15-60 seconds)
- Switch applications to open the file in an HTML
editor. Find the broken link in the file. Position the cursor
to replace it. (30-60 seconds)
- Look at the context around the link. Switch applications
to Windows Explorer or the Find File applet, look for the
correct target of the link. (30-100 seconds)
- Switch applications to verify the link target by
opening it in a browser. This may happen several times as
you investigate different potential targets. (15-90 seconds)
- Switch applications back to the HTML editor. (5
seconds)
- Type in the new target URL name and save the file. Go
back to step 1. (10 seconds)
Total 2 minutes to 5 minutes 40 seconds (repeated for each
individual link), or for a site that averages 2 individual
links per unique link:
4 to 11+ minutes for each unique
link
|
|
- Look at the contexts of the broken link Investigate the
correct new target for the link using the integrated file
browser and wildcard-enabled find file function. (15-90
seconds)
- Verify the new target via the integrated file preview.
(2-10 seconds)
- Click the "Fix" button to fix all instances
of this broken link throughout the site. Go back to step
1. The next item in the list of broken links has been automatically
selected and its context is displayed. (1-5 seconds).
Total:
18 seconds to 1 min 45 seconds for each unique
link
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