Figure 1 is an example of Topical-style navigation. Navigation buttons and thumbnails appear along the slide’s left side and the audience sees all these navigation elements. New relational presenters often observe this fact and ask, “Hey, is there a way I can hide those navigation components so that my viewers don’t see them?”

Yes you can, depending on which styles of navigation you choose. The question, though, is whether you really want to hide navigation. As a general rule, our opinion is no, you do not want to hide navigation. Here’s why.

Most people believe that a large column of navigation on the slide surely distracts audience members and therefore should be eliminated if possible. Actually, it doesn’t. People hardly notice navigation components after awhile. That’s because what attracts our brain’s attention is change and motion. Because the navigation elements change very little while the presenter moves around between slides, viewers notice the changing content at right (as they should) but quickly learn to ignore the left navigation panel. They see it, but don’t really see it at all.

Another argument for hiding navigation goes something like this, “Yeah, but those buttons take up a lot of space on the slide that I might need for content.” You know what? That’s a good thing. Giving yourself less space on the slide pane encourages simple design. By placing only one idea on each slide, in a limited space (our recommendation), you reduce unnecessary complexity and help people better understand your messages. You’ll find, in fact, that the reduced content area is still plenty large enough for almost anything you might want to show. And if you really do need the entire slide pane for a particular topic, all you have to do is jump out to an external show and then return again to the main platform when finished.

Consider, too, that being able to see navigation choices while presenting is extremely helpful to you as a speaker. Those navigation buttons give you subtle reminders about content options, as though glancing at a cheat sheet while taking a test. Audience members sometimes find navigation helpful as well and may use your own navigation buttons to request more information about a subject of interest. Some presenters even encourage such activity by making navigation elements on slides very large and easily readable.

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