Have you ever been asked to make a presentation in which you would like to use the internet but organizers could not assure you a connection would be available? Or begun your presentation using the internet to be slowed down so much that the session was not effective? Now there is a variety of internet agent software that allows presenters to capture and store web pages for off-line use. Michael Samson, from the Wayne State University Law Library, explained some of these new methods in Create Powerful Web Presentations without an Internet Connection, a fascinating program at the AALL Convention. Michael explained that from a browser, you can visit web pages on the internet, capture them, and save them for use in ‘live’ presentations without an active Internet connection. All links, graphics, scripting, etc., are preserved so that when an active Internet connection exists, these pages will work exactly the same way their web ‘twins’ do.
Similar to internet browser bookmarks but much more powerful, you now have the ability to organize your materials into folders and subfolders quickly. Some of the more sophisticated software has keyword and boolean searching capabilities for easy retrieval of information within the saved pages. Each page to be used in a presentation is “grabbed” and saved separately. Pages are easily stored by dragging and dropping or pointing and clicking, with options to save in several formats, on hard drives, CDs, or flash cards. These presentations can then be shared via email, web sites, reports, or run PowerPoint-like kiosk presentations.
Intuitive and powerful, uses for these tools in an academic or business setting are far-reaching. Not only for classroom presentations, the software allows you to travel without a laptop by saving files on portable media (usable from computers with Internet Explorer); archive files to be accessed years from now with the original URL; annotate or highlight files to be exported and shared with colleagues. Live demos of some of these software packages are available at www.aallnet.org/chapter/michall/presentations/aall2004/ (files are slow to load). [NOTE: Link updated September 10, 2004.]
These internet agent software packages are fairly inexpensive and simple to use, from Internet Explorer, using either the “WebArchive, single file” or the Add Favorites, “Make available offline” option, to more powerful tools like CatchTheWeb ($25.00), Adobe Acrobat, PowerMarks ($17), and Onfolio ($30-$80).