I spent a chunk of my day in a very useful Prezi workshop as part of my ongoing Vitae Researcher Development Framework training. I wasn’t sure what I would get out of the day, but I’m really looking forward to trying out the new presentation software.
I’ve been an enthusiastic (but not too enthusiastic!) user of PowerPoint for many years and whilst I really enjoy the platform, I am often excited about the latest and greatest technologies. After all, moving forward can be a lot more exciting than standing still.
I viewed Prezi as an opportunity to present slideshows with a bit more “wow factor” than PowerPoint allows. And after tooling around for a bit today, I have to say that I was right – there are some amazingly “wow” things you can do with Prezi. (Here’s a good comparison of the two.)
The problem, however, is that I can’t do everything with it.
I admit that my limited use isn’t enough to give a full-on critique of the software, but I’ll go ahead and share my initial thoughts anyhow. If you have anything to add (for or against!) please feel free to comment away.
So, here are my initial thoughts:
Pros:
- It’s free! (And with an educational license, you get more goodies for free!)
- You can get artistic with the fully zoomed-out view, giving your presentation a nice “designed” feel
- It’s online and presentations can easily be shared with links or by embedding them
Cons:
- It’s all online (unless you pay the big bucks!) meaning you need an Internet connection
- Despite being able to download your presentation, you need an Internet connection to best show your presentation – especially if you have embedded videos
- Motion-sickness can be a problem for some audience members
Ideally, I’d like to combine Prezi and PowerPoint features to create the perfect tool for me – and maybe one day some smart software developer will do just that. In the meantime, I must admit that I will be sticking with PowerPoint for any in-person presentation I have to give (not that I have anything on the horizon!). But I think I’ll give Prezi a try for online purposes to learn the tools a bit better – and in case they ever make some of their online features available offline!
Oh! Here’s the presentation I created today. It’s not much, but it’s a good place to start!
(But seriously, if you have any thoughts on the matter I’d love to hear them.)