Have you ever wanted to demonstrate a live website during a PowerPoint presentation? But you don’t want to show your desktop or go
out of show mode in PowerPoint. Sometimes the content or message is more useful if you can show your audience information from a website. You could always use a screen shot with a hyperlink but that is like crossing your fingers and hope it works.
I work with high-tech clients, many of whom like to demo their technology during a webinar, showing proof of concept, or during a presentation. Often that means getting out of show mode and going to another application like Chrome or Bing to log onto their website or platform. It looks awkward and unprofessional each time they had to switch back and forth. They are often tearing their hair out in frustration.
In PowerPoint 2016, you can add a web page by inserting a screen shot then adding a hyperlink. It is easy. Just follow these steps:
#1: Choose Insert Screenshot.
#2: Choose an existing screenshot or do a screen clipping – one of the most useful applications in Windows.
#3: Resize the screenshot to the size you want
#4: Then, right-click on the picture and choose hyperlink. Add the hyperlink.
#5: Go to Slide Show – you will see the cursor change to the icon for hyperlinked item.
#6: Click the picture and you will open the website. But it will take you out of PowerPoint.
Hint: You can use ALT-TAB to get back to PowerPoint but it takes finesse
Although you can add a web page to PowerPoint, the process of doing it is not for the faint of heart! And it often doesn’t work! There had to be a simpler way.
Meet LiveWeb, a free add-in for PowerPoint that makes this painless and offers you easy-to-manage options. You can add web pages into a PowerPoint and then refresh them real time during your presentation so it is always current and up-to-date. And you stay in the PowerPoint slide show. What if you are online or your internet connection is slower than you like? Well, this program works with your local drive as well. Just specify what document, or path you will be storing the information. And it pulls it from there. And you don’t have to write any code.
No matter what you’re giving a presentation about, sometimes it can be useful to show your audience information from the internet. You could always create a screenshot of the web page you’re demonstrating, but chances are the screenshot may be out of date by the time you give your presentation.
Here’s how you can insert a live web page into a PowerPoint presentation so you can show the exact content you’re talking about.
LiveWeb adds two actions to your PowerPoint “Insert” Menu. One lets you create the URL link and then define the size and placement of the LiveWeb window on your slide. And the second one guides you through how to edit the page property, if you need to. And it is quick and easy to use – a great reason to download it.
So what does it really do? Well, once you set up the web page, it works its magic behind the scene. it captures the web browser control manually and it writes the code to update the web pages within its control during the slide show. We tested it during several webinars and it worked great!
Your slideshow now resembles a full-screen browser without toolbar controls. In fact, to use the commands for browsing, you have to right click on the browser object. You can change the properties of the web page slide anytime from the Edit Page Property button on the Live Web menu. The size of the inserted web page can be changed by dragging the corner handles of the browser object. You can use the remaining area of the slide for inserting any other PowerPoint element.
There is a downside to using LiveWeb. You cannot package this up to share unless the receiving computer also has Live Web. Otherwise, there is a black box where the web page is. I have used Camtasia or GoToWebinar to package it as a recording and that works but obviously, the web page is not live or searchable. It is still worth downloading.
