Put Pizzazz in PowerPoint With Live Web Links

PowerPoint is a presentation program that doubles as a powerful sedative. At most presentations you can see the audience's eyes fighting off sleep the instant the lights dim and the PowerPoint boots up. I give about 60 PowerPoint presentations a year, and I've found that when I can do something live and lose the PowerPoint for a few minutes I keep the audience.

One technique I like is illustrating a point by going live to the web from within my presentation. For example, I often speak about raising kids in a digital world. Instead of showing static PowerPoint screen shots, I go live to the web and show how MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube work. The audience is riveted because they never know what I'm going to turn up. (Truthfully, I'm a little nervous about an unscripted presentation, too.)

Here's how to switch to a web site from within your PowerPoint presentation:

In your presentation, highlight the word you'd like to be the hotlink to call up the web site.

Next, under the SlideShow menu, select Action Settings. A dialog box pops up.

Select Hyperlink to and scroll through the selections. Select URL.

A blank pop up appears where you can copy the URL from the web site you're on in another window and then paste the name into the box. Select OK.

When you return to your PowerPoint, the text you've hotlinked will be displayed in a different color font. When you view your presentation in SlideShow mode in PowerPoint and click on the text, you'll automatically launch to the linked web site (provided you have a live connection).

Breaking away from your staid presentation and launching a live website can add a bit of drama to any dull PowerPoint. Give it a whirl.