Put a brochure or a magazine in front of you. Now take your index finger, and tap it repeatedly. Does anything happen? Aside from the object developing a slight dimple and you receiving some kind of repetitive stress injury, that is?
Microsoft Word is a dandy piece of software that has many helpful tricks. One of those tricks is automatically turning website and email addresses into hyperlinks and giving them a pretty blue color. When you’re exchanging documents online, that can be handy, because you can use your mouse (or finger on a tablet) to connect with that link.
But why would you go ahead and include that hyperlink on a printed document? I’m seeing more and more brochures and other documents with those bright blue hyperlinks. And you know, no matter how many times I pound them with my finger or my mouse, the promised website or email screen never appears.
When you develop anything to be read offline, leave the hyperlinks behind. They serve no purpose other than to make it look like you don’t know better. And you really do … don’t you?