Optimize Your Documents the Easy Way

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Fast, effective and easy to use
  • (5 more, see all...)

The applications incorporated in Microsoft Office – Word, Excel and PowerPoint – are full of features for inserting images and objects into office documents provided by all companies. However, while these documents can offer big advantages, their typically large file sizes can be truly bothersome because of adding up to overloaded mailboxes and filled storage servers, as well as due to how long they take to open.

The need for a good optimizing application that will reduce these files to a more manageable size has encouraged developers to create a piece of software just for that. Here is where NXPowerLite Desktop Edition comes in.

We tested NXPowerLite Desktop Edition in various conditions, converting small and large files to see the full capacity of this great application, all of which we will tackle in this review, but first let's take a quick look at what it has to offer.

The main window provides you with the right tools for the optimization process. It features four buttons on the right side of the screen from which you can add individual files to the batch or entire folders to your optimization operation. If you happen to add the wrong files, the application provides you with the Remove option to take out individual files; you can also eliminate all the batch files by pressing the Remove All button from the main window.

If you want to save the optimized files to another location NXPowerLite allows you to select the desired folder wherever you wish on your hard drive. Finally, the application has four optimization modes: for screen, print, mobile devices and a custom mode to suit your needs.

For the following test we used one of each supported file (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPEG) of NXPowerLite Desktop Edition. Using the Screen optimization method you will be able to optimize your files for screening purposes at a predefined resolution of 1024x768. For this option we tested the aforementioned files containing both text and images in different sizes up to a total of 10.5 MB.

The best optimization rate we got was on the Word (1.1 MB) and JPEG files (1.2 MB) compressed to 94 KB and 63 KB with a 92% and 95% loss in dimension respectively, while the Excel (1.5 MB) and PowerPoint (6.7 MB) files achieved 1% and 2% respectively. In conclusion, from a total of 10.5 MB using the Screen option we reduced them to 8.2 MB with a 47% overall optimization rate. Regarding the quality of the optimized files, we are very pleased with the final result; despite the fantastic optimization percent of the Word and JPEG files, both have no noticeable drop in quality.

The next step in the testing process was the Print optimization method, which was set at a predefined resolution of 1600x1200. Using the same files, the results were pretty much resembling, with or without the flatten embedded documents option.

When we used the Mobile optimizing option, along with the flatten embedded documents feature, we got the most encouraging results: Word (1.1 MB) and JPEG files (1.2 MB) compressed to 35 KB and 19 KB respectively with an outstanding 97% and 98% loss in dimension, the PowerPoint presentation optimized by 9%, and again the Excel document with 1% with an overall optimization rate of 51%. But these results have their backdrops regarding the quality of the processed files. While text files remained clear, our pictures turned out highly pixelated. Considering that the Mobile optimization method might be used for superficial review purposes on mobile devices, the quality of the processed images doesn't bother us.

Finally, the Custom option enables you to select your own optimization settings. You can choose whether to allow or not image cropping in the optimization process, an option available for Microsoft Office files only. If you don't want NXPowerLite Desktop Edition to resize your images, you can easily disable the option by unchecking the checkbox next to it.

In Custom mode you can also adjust the resolution for the display optimization by selecting some predefined values or adding custom display sizes using the Edit button. One of the most important settings is the JPEG quality option, which enables you to select the quality of the optimized pictures – lower quality means smaller size while a higher setting will automatically increase your optimized file size.

From the Embedded Documents tab you will be able to select the action that NXPowerLite will take when it encounters embedded files. The last tab of the Settings menu grants you the ability to select the destination folder where the application will save the processed files. You can choose to save the files in the same folder as the original ones or browse for a different location.

When saving files to a different folder the application lets you save the optimized file with the same name as the original and you can also preserve the original file's date and time. Also in this window you can find the Naming button, which enables you to add a prefix or suffix to the optimized files so you can recognize them easily.

NXPowerLite Desktop Edition integrates itself in the Microsoft Office interface in the Add In tab, allowing a fast optimization process directly from a Word, Excel or PowerPoint window as well as from the Outlook interface.

As a conclusion we were delighted by the high optimization rate of NXPowerLite Desktop Edition, especially with Word and JPEG files drastically reducing their size and at the same time keeping the quality at a high standard. At the other end sit the Excel files, which remained almost the same in our tests, NXPowerLite failing to optimize them.


The Good

The application is a must have not only for companies that use a large amount of documents in one of the formats supported by NXPowerLite, but also for the average user who needs too manage disk space more efficiently.

The Bad

NXPowerLite could use a bit more improvement in the Excel compressing process, the optimizing rate being very low compared to how the app handled the other supported formats.

The Truth

All in all, NXPowerLite Desktop Edition does it's job very efficiently with good overall optimizing rates, despite the low results on the Excel and PowerPoint files.

If you are an office guru managing tons of documents every day and having problems with the disk space, this is the tool to use.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 5
features 5
ease of use 5
pricing / value 4


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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