Favored method for inserting a live browser window into a PowerPoint slide?

October 9, 2007 8:18 PM

I'm looking for a way to place a browser window into a PowerPoint slide so that I can access web pages during my presentation and have them updated in real time. I've played around a bit with LiveWeb, which has behaved a bit erratically, and am hesitating before plunking down money for something like T-Dog's PowerPoint Web Browser. It doesn't need to have terribly robust browser capabilities - an address bar, forward/backward buttons and a "refresh" button should suffice. Anyway, I'd love to hear people's advice - the simpler, the better; I am a confirmed non-geek. If it matters (and I assume it does), I'm running Windows XP and PowerPoint 2003. Thanks in advance for your answers to my first-ever Ask MeFi question!
posted by AngerBoy to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Why not open firefox, maximize it (F11), and Alt-Tab switch to it?
posted by tmcw at 8:21 PM on October 9, 2007

Any time I have to demo a web-tool or something during a presentation, I do exactly what tmcw has suggested. I've seen others do it too. Much easier and much much less likely to cause Powerpoint to crash. The last thing you want during a presentation is for a third-party embedded app to hang Powerpoint.
posted by reformedjerk at 8:27 PM on October 9, 2007

Thirding the alt-tab suggestion. In every conceivable way, it's better than any embedding solution I've ever seen. It also provides quick access to pdfs and other external docs as needed.
posted by davejay at 9:48 PM on October 9, 2007

Yep. Full-screen (F11) and you're set. Firefox or IE (if you don't like Firefox) will do this. Note that Acrobat also has a full screen option, if you wish to show a PDF this way. Just Alt-tab to your browser and go. If you need to show multiple pages, open them all ahead of time in tabs, so that all are ready to go at once.

Ctrl-Tab will cycle through the open browser tabs. Ctrl-R will refresh the page for you if you want to make sure the shot is live.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:03 AM on October 10, 2007

No kidding?

Wow, that's delightfully lo-tech. And certainly manageable for someone with as limited tech skills as me.

Thanks to all for the help - much appreciated!
posted by AngerBoy at 7:20 AM on October 10, 2007