Prezi is an online program that allows you to make quick, clean presentations with a variety of transitions and possibilities not seen in Powerpoint. A prezi is basically a big blank digital white board where you can post text, images, and even video clips, and then program a ‘camera’ to pan around the whiteboard, zooming and rotating at defined positions for emphasis. This video explains the basics pretty well:
There is a learning curve with Prezi, but it’s relatively painless. Once you learn the basics and have practiced a bit, you should be able to make a simple Prezi in less than 10 minutes.
Some things to keep in mind:
- Plan your Prezi. Have a general idea of what information you want to include and how your path will look.
- The Transformation Zebra (the blue circular thing) is extremely useful. If you click the center, it lets you move your object, if you click the second ring, it changes the size of the object, and if you click the outer ring, it lets you rotate your object.
- Use the Write tool for most cases, when scrolling around your Prezi and creating new content. If you are on Path or Show when you just want to edit, you will get frustrated.
- Keep it simple. Don’t add really large images. Prezi is web-based, and it will start to act strange if it gets too big.
- YouTube videos can be embedded directly into the Prezi by simply pasting the YouTube link into the text box. As far as I know, they are limited to 360p resolution.