Sacred Cow #10: Web Site Addresses Are Helpful
PowerPoint's been around longer than the World Wide Web easily by a country mile. When use of the Web became popular, URLs started invading slide decks. Sometimes they were inserted so the audience could write them down later, or if the slides were abused as handouts, the thought was they could be copied into the browser. Some presenters used them to launch demos of Web sites.
The problem with putting URLs in your slides is that though the intent may be noble, the end result is the opposite of what was intended.
Take, for example, the slide deck I made over recently:
On the second slide, we have a list of URLs. The intent here is that the audience could either click on the links when they received the electronic copy after the presentation or they could copy them down (and possibly visit them) while he was talking. Instead, what we, the audience were presented was a distraction. They were a visual distraction that took our attention away from the important points, even if they were in mind-numbing bullet points. If any of us had the wherewithal to copy them down or even go to those sites on our phones or laptops, then we're even more distracted. There would be no hope at all for our paying attention to the presentation.
If the intent was for the speaker to click on those links and demonstrate the sites, then it's an invitation to disaster. Granted, there are plenty of examples where the web page launched successfully, but this practice is just inviting Murphy to make a grand entrance. Rather than clicking on a link on your slide, instead have the page already loaded in your browser. That way, the audience won't have to wait for any HTML, graphics, Flash, or any other components to load. If you lose your Internet connection, you'll at least have something to show. Another thing to consider when launching links from within your slide is that it takes time for your computer to switch to your browser, open a new window (or tab), and start the page load process. Granted, it may take only a few seconds, but that's enough time for your audience's attention to be commandeered by something else. You also want them to be focused on you, not what your computer is or is not doing.
So, what to do? Leave the URLs and links out of your slides. Instead, put them in your handouts. The purpose of your slides is to function as a visual aid, and not a detailed information resource. That's the purpose of your handout.
Top Image credit: frankfarm, used under a Creative Commons license.
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