Now that everyone in the world has a web site, (or at least it seems that way) a common question that comes up is this: "How can I capture my web site, and show it to clients even if I'm not on the web?"

It's a simple question, but not so easy to answer!

While there are many programs that claim to "capture" web sites for offline viewing, most have serious shortcomings.

One of the most commonly recommended programs for site capture is WebWacker. While it does a pretty good job of automatically downloading very basic sites, it cannot capture pages that are called from any number of "server side" programs and scripts.

In layman's terms, this means that many of the pages on the web that are accessed by clicking on complex graphics cannot be read or saved by this program. Additionally, any pages that are accessed from drop-down lists, forms or database functions will be missed as well.

On many of today's business sites, this means that the majority of the site will not be captured, and thus, cannot be replayed while off-line!

On the other hand, WebWacker can be used for presentations quite effectively while on-line. It will show the pages it has captured very quickly, but will still allow your browser to go to the web for information that it could not store on your computer.

For many presenters and salespeople a new program, called CatchTheWeb, might be a better choice. This program doesn't try to download entire sites (a time consuming and often inaccurate task).

Instead, it allows you to selectively choose which pages that you wish to capture, and then let's you build simple presentations based on the pages you've saved.

The beauty CatchTheWeb is that you can create presentations based on pages and chapters that you decide are important, and "server side" scripts will not get in the way!

Better yet, you can not only use this during presentations yourself, but can actually compile the demonstration into self running presentations that can be e-mailed, saved to floppy, CD or zip disks and can also place them on your web site.

Now, anyone can view your web site presentation in the exact order that you decide! And, your presentation can include pages from any number of different web sites, too!

Finally, if the person viewing the presentation is on-line, then they can follow any of the links contained in the web pages as well.

The uses for this new program are just too many to even begin to contemplate! For $39.95 this has to be one of the most under-priced utilities available anywhere - probably one of the reasons it won PC Magazine's "Editor's Choice" award.

To see an example of what can be done in just 15 minutes, go to: http://www.canale.com

You can go to the CatchTheWeb site and download a free trial version from this presentation as well!

Published: September 28, 1998

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Editor's Note: This article reflects the opinions of Stephen M. Canale only and not necessarily the views of this or any other publication, organization or Website owner.