What’s Hot.
Creates innovative presentations; intuitive interface
What’s Not.
New concept requires users to overcome slight learning curve
The bottom line.
Prezi’s nonlinear presentations are guaranteed to engage your audience and provide creative relief to those bored of Keynote and PowerPoint documents.
Zui Lab’s recently-launched Zooming presentation editor is a flash-based application that allows you to create a new breed of presentation online. Have you ever imagined a digital presentation world without slides? Well, it’s here! Through Prezi, you are about to enter the world of nonlinear presentations. “But what does that even mean?!” you shout.
Instead of thinking about a presentation as a set of slides, think about it as a one-page map – like a presentation treasure map. Ahoy! With Prezi, users create presentation that can include text, images, videos, PDFs and drawings entirely on one page. Prezi then allows you to create a path to move around your map and zoom in on specific aspects to illustrate your points. So actually, it’s like a treasure map that comes with its own magnifying glass.
Once you’re familiar with the application, the interface is fairly intuitive. Since the concept behind Prezi is remarkably different than that of PowerPoint or Keynote, you should expect to encounter a learning curve. However, the learning curve is slight and Prezi includes a number of help videos and written instructions to guide you through the creation process. Even I, who am pretty careless when it comes to, oh, reading instructions and watching tutorials, created my first Prezi presentation within 10 minutes.
How does it all work? First, you place all of your elements – pirate ship, message in a bottle, treasure chest, etc. – on your Prezi map. Then, you simply indicate the path that you would like the application to follow. Your first stop might be the pirate ship and your second might be a desert island. In slideshow mode, you control the presentation advancement with a menu in the top left corner of the screen or with several keyboard short cuts. For example, you could start by having Prezi zoom in on the image of your pirate ship. By pressing the advance button, you will tell Prezi to zoom in on your map’s next element, a video of a desert island littered with empty rum bottles. Yo-ho-ho!
Prezi truly creates innovative and engaging presentations that will mesmerize your audience. You can also set a Prezi presentation on an infinite loop, which is helpful if you want to have it running at a trade show or similar event. If you’d like to try Prezi for free, go to the web site and register for a Public account. Keep in mind that presentations created under this type of account will be shared publicly and include the Prezi logo.
Concept still too abstract to imagine? Go to www.prezi.com and play around. You’ll be zooming around a new presentation land in no time.
