Presenting the Internet without Wires:
An Instruction Book for Presenters
Jeanette S. Cates, Ph.D.
The Technology Tamer™
In this time of growing awareness and need for Internet instruction,
we still are missing a key ingredient--connections! How often do you present
before a group without access to a telephone line or fast connection?
Yet the Internet is one of the most popular topics on speaking circuits
today. So how do you bring the power and wonder of the Internet to your
audience? There are two methods that are inexpensive and easy-to-do: caching
and synchronizing.
Put it in Cache
Your web browser has a "cache" where it stores copies of the
web pages that you visit. The size of your cache determines how many pages
can be stored--roughly 30 pages, with graphics, per 1 megabyte of cache.
I have found that 15MB of cache can store enough pages for a 3-hour demonstration
of the Internet.
To set the size of your cache, in Internet Explorer 5, choose Internet
Options from the Tools menu. On the first page, click on Settings for
the Temporary Internet Files
then set the size of the cache by using the slider bar in
the middle of the page.
The evening before your presentation, use your browser to
visit all of the sites that you want to demonstrate. Once you have visited
a web page, it will be in cache. You can tell by looking at a web page
which linked pages are in cache because they are a different color. For
example, if linking text is bright blue and underlined, then cached locations
are dark blue and underlined. Your cache stores pages on a first-in, first-out
basis so the more recent your visit to the page, the closer it is to the
top of the cache. When the cache is full, it will erase several files
from the bottom of the cache--the oldest files first. That's why it is
important to visit the sites close to the time of your presentation.
Set up the presentation
There are two settings in your browser that contribute to a more effective
presentation. For a smooth beginning, you want to set your browser to
open to a blank page. That way you can start the browser application without
its trying to connect to the modem. It will wait for you to provide a
URL or click on the Home button before looking for a connection. To ensure
that the browser opens to a blank page, in Internet Explorer 5, choose
Internet Options under the Tools menu, then click Use Blank.
You'll want to do this before you begin the presentation.
The second setting you'll need to change is how often to
check the page. This tells your browser to go to that URL site and get
a fresh copy of the web page. When you are browsing "live" on
the Internet, you want to check the pages once per session. When you visit
that site a second time, your browser usually will load the page from
cache (which was the original purpose of the cache). If you do a lot of
browsing with services that update every few minutes, you probably want
to load a new copy of the page every time you visit that site. But when
you are demonstrating without a connection, you don't ever want the browser
to look for a fresh copy of that page; instead you want it to load from
cache. To ensure that you are using your cache and the browser is not
trying to connect, in Internet Explorer 5, choose Internet Options under
the Tools menu. Click on the Temporary Internet Files Settings button
as you did earlier, then check Never.
Finally, in Internet Explorer 5, you'll need to tell it
you want to Work Offline, so that it doesn't try to connect. Under the
File menu, choose Work Offline. That setting will hold until you change
it to work online again.
During the Presentation
You'll be able to see which web pages you have cached because of the difference
in color of the linked text. So during your demonstration, click only
on those lines. Maps and clickable pictures will not work from cache.
These depend on CGI scripts on the Internet computer where they reside.
Since these scripts cannot be downloaded into cache, you'll need to click
on the text for those links, rather than the pictures. Well-designed web
pages have both pictures and text to allow for the differences in browsers.
If you encounter a page without the text option, you can always set a
favorite for the page you want to go to. During the demonstration, you'll
just use the favorite instead of the linking text.
For the first few web pages that you show, leave the settings
as you would for a regular browsing session. This will allow people to
see the design and layout, as the web designer intended. However, anyone
who presents will tell you that you'll lose people in the back of the
room if they can't see--and they can't see the usual text size in the
browser. So take a moment to go into the View menu, choose Text Size,
then click on the Largest option.
This size may disrupt the layout of the screen, but it does
make it more visible to the back row. In a standard presentation, this
will be sufficient.
Occasionally you'll want to "zoom in" on parts
of the screen, often to wake up that infamous back row. There are programs
that let you do this. On the Macintosh, for example, there is a free control
panel named CloseView. It is available in the Apple Extras folder on your
computer or from the Disability Group on the Apple Web pages (http://www.apple.com)
By using predefined keys, you can enlarge any part of the screen 2 to
4 times to show detail, such as a URL address or a button. The Windows
platform does not have an equivalent program that is easy to use in a
presentation situation, as far as I can find. If you know of one, please
contact me at cates@techtamers.com
Cache-less Presentations
There are a few drawbacks to using the cache. First of all, it is dependent
on your using the same machine to cache items and to demonstrate. Sometimes
this isn't possible. Second, if you use your computer for personal browsing
and for presentations, you will overwrite your cache frequently. So each
time you get ready to do a presentation, you will need to re-cache your
web sites. Finally, if you work with a group and want to designate one
person to do the browsing, then provide those resources to other group
members, it is not possible because of the non-transferability of cache.
That leads to the subject of "synchronizing" or saving pages
for offline browsing.
When you set a favorite in Internet Explorer 5, you have
the option to save the page for offline browsing. Check that box.
Then click on the Customize button. This will lead you through
a wizard setup to determine the preferences you have for that page. For
example, when prompted, you can determine the number of levels down that
you want to go.
This means that you want to get a copy of the original page,
plus 1 level deep on every link from this page. So you could capture the
home page of a site and every page that links off of that page. You can
see where you can very quickly be saving almost the entire Internet if
you choose too many levels deep! So use this cautiously. Generally for
illustration purposes in a presentation, you can easily use one level
deep.
The next option to make is how often you want to update
this link. If you're using it for presentations, generally you only want
to update it when you specify (right before a presentation, for example).
Always look at the page before you decide to update it.
It may have changed and the very point you are trying to illustrate has
disappeared!
Finish the wizard setup for synchronizing the page and the
computer will capture the link. It is stored with your temporary internet
files. But each time you clean out your temporary files, it will prompt
you on whether or not you want to remove your synchronized pages as well.
Naturally, you'll say 'no' in order to preserve the work you've done to
capture these files.
The Best of Both Worlds
Synchronized files are just like cached files, except they are not overwritten
unless you ask for them to be. So when you are presenting, you will again
work offline. You'll be using a combination of recently stored, temporary
cached files and a list of favorites that you typically use frequently
for presentations. Notice when you are "surfing" with your offline
files that a forbidden circle with the line through it appears on a link
that is not cached. This will let you know that it's not safe to click
on that link - but the audience generally won't see that small symbol.
At the end of the presentation, I'll challenge anyone to decide if it
was live...or wireless!
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About the Author
Dr.
Jeanette Cates, The Technology Tamer™, works with organizations
who want to reap the rewards of their online technologies and with professionals
who want to cut their learning curve. She is the founder of TechTamers,
a training and consulting company. She is a frequent presenter at national
and state conferences.
© 2001 Permission is granted to reprint this article
in print or on your web site so long as the paragraph above is included
and contact information is provided to www.TechTamers.com.
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