Prezi presentation software

Ned Potter, Academic Liaison Librarian, for L&T Forum | May 2014
This handout accompanies the presentation at http://bit.ly/academicprezi




The basics of Prezi

The basic principle of Prezi is to put objects on the canvas and link them together with a
path. Your presentation will then consist of Prezi moving from object to object, zooming
in on them in the order youve chosen.

Objects can be text boxes, images, YouTube videos or graphics. You can write and
structure your presentation exactly as you would a PowerPoint, or you can do something
completely different, like a map.

Just click on the canvas anywhere to start adding stuff.

A typical process of creating a Prezi might consist of these stages:

1. Plan the structure and outline of the presentation
2. Add the text, plus any images / videos etc
3. Move them around and arrange them in a coherent order on the canvas
4. Plot the path between them in the order you want to use
5. Click Presentation and watch the presentation back, then refine it if you need to






Library & Archives


Key tips to remember

Keep in mind that because you can make objects big and small, youll need to be
zooming in and out to move around the canvas and see what youre doing. The
scroll-wheel on the mouse is the easiest way to zoom out and zoom back in again.
To move an object around, click on it to pick it up (more on this below). To move
around the canvas, click and hold anywhere there ISNT an object, and move the
mouse up, down, left and right to move around.
You can change the shape of the Text boxes you create with the little two-way
arrow icon on tnhe right edge of the box, as shown below

Click the little Pencil icon near the top left of the screen to enter the edit mode for
your Path. This is where you choose which order your Prezi will zoom in on the
various pieces of text, graphics and images in your presentation.








Getting started: signing up for a Prezi account
1. If youve not already signed up for a Prezi account, go to www.prezi.com
2. Click the blue Get started button near the bottom of the page
3. You will be presented with various options via the How would you like to use Prezi?
page. We want the Students & Teachers sign up, hidden away at the bottom of the page:










4. The paid for options are unnecessary click the green Continue button under the Edu
Enjoy license

5. Sign up with your york.ac.uk email address as prompted


Exercise: Recreating the Web 2.0 Tools Prezi
Presentation
To get you used to the way Prezi works, this guide will take you through building a
presentation step by step. If youd rather not do this, and create your own presentation
from scratch, feel free skip to page 11 for guidance on how to start creating.

View the original Web 2.0 Tools presentation, which youll be creating your own version
of, at http://bit.ly/trainingprezi - note this is case-sensitive link. It may be useful to have
this open in a separate tab so its easy to refer to.



1. Go back to prezi.com if youre not already there, and click the blue New Prezi button, in
the top-right corner of the screen.
2. When the Prezi opens, you get the choice to choose a template or create an entirely blank
canvas. The screen will look something like this:

3. For the purposes of this exercise were using the Social Network template click on this
then click the Use template button. (By default Prezi offers you the Latest templates, but
these arent necessarily the best ones. When you come to explore Prezi more fully in your
own time, click More just under Choose your template and scroll down to find some
interesting ones.)






4. Youve now opened the blank template; your screen should look like this:

The first thing to do is edit the title and sub title. Click on each, and edit the main title to
read Web 2.0 Tools and the subtitle to read In Higher Education.

(In all cases in these instructions, the suggested text to type in is just to give you
something to work with rather than you having to create your own content AND get used
to a new tool at the same time if youd rather write something else entirely, thats
completely fine.)

5. There are two main ways to navigate around your Prezi. The first is by clicking on things
on the main screen, or zooming in and out using the mouse wheel; the second is by


clicking on each screen in the Path down the left hand side.
This will then make the main screen zoom in on each object on the path. Were going to
use this method as its slightly more straightforward when working with an existing
template.

Click on point 2 on the Path. The main screen will then zoom in on the box at point 2, like
this:




6. Were keeping things simple for this exercise, so all the boxes in this presentation look the
same and work in the same way. Click the various sections of text to edit them, and click
the image to choose a new picture.

For this box, change the title to Welcome, the main text to This is a brief introduction to
a few useful online tools in the academic environment. And the picture caption to Web
2.0.

7. Click the Replace Image button on the picture. You can either upload a file from your
desktop, or choose an image to import from Google images. If you type Web 2 into the
Google search box, the second image that comes up is a good fit for our image box but
use whatever you like. Double click an image and it will replace the mountain scene
currently in the Prezi.




8. Were now going to follow the same process for the remaining boxes. In each case, click
on the next path point down on the left hand side of the screen (so number 3 next in this
case) and then edit the title text, the body text, and replace the image with something
more relevant by searching for a keyword (e.g. Prezi to find the Prezi logo to put in box
3).

If you want to recreate the presentation exactly, the text used for each section is as
follows:

Box 3: Prezi
The first tool is Prezi itself. Prezi allows for audience led, interactive presentations. Viewers can
also comment on Prezis, and authors can reply.

Box 4: Slideshare.net
Perhaps the most under-rated web 2.0 tool in the academic sphere is Slideshare. This platform is
to PowerPoint presentations what YouTube is to video - people all over the world upload their
conference talks and gain a global audience. Thousands of people view the top presentations on
Slideshare.

Box 5: Twitter
The next tool is Twitter, a platform for exchanging views, links, and images. Twitter is a bit like the
useful conversation between presentations at conferences, but all the time. It is increasingly
becoming part of academic life.

Box 6: LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a potentially useful platform on which to display your CV, list of publications and
presentations, and to attract offers of work or collaboration.



Box 7: Academia.edu
Academia.edu is a social / professional network aimed specifically at those in education. It allows
you to upload e-copies of your articles, and approach authors and scholars directly to interact
with them.

Box 8: Thanks for watching
[On this screen, put in a link to your departmental web-page, or anything else you like, here.
For the picture, type your own name into the image search - you may be (uncomfortably)
surprised at how many images of you are available via Google...]

9. Finally, click the Themes button so you can see how changing colours and fonts works on
Prezi you can change most things about the way your presentation looks all at once by
choosing a new theme. I wouldnt necessarily recommend doing this with the Web 2.0
Tools presentation, but you can always choose another theme then hit the Undo button
once youve had a look at it.





10. The presentation is now complete all that remains is to watch it back. Press the blue
Present button in the top left hand corner of the screen, then use the arrow keys to
navigate through the presentation. Note that Prezi auto-saves, and when you hit the Exit
button youll be able to edit the name and description of your presentation. You can also
delete it when you want to.


Good luck! Read the next few pages to get an overview of how Prezi works, and how you
can manipulate and play around with your slides.










A general guide to creating Prezis from scratch
To type
Click anywhere on the canvas to start typing. Previously you had to stick to the font colours
chosen using the Colours and Fonts section, but now you can edit the colour of any given block of
text using the little colour box. You can also justify right, left or centre, or use bullet points , and
make text bold etc.

To insert images etc, use the toolbar.

The Prezi toolbar
On the far-left of the toolbar are the options to Present (see the Prezi from the audiences point
of view rather than the edit view), save, undo and redo.

The frames and arrows button near the middle of the toolbar is very
important. Frames (and invisible frames) form the basis of the structure of
your Prezi.

The insert button is what you use to give
your presentation some visual flair. You
can add images and videos, or add
symbals and shapes.






The Themes button is used to decide the overall look and feel of the Prezi. Its best to decide this
at the start, rather than changing it later. Dont be afraid to use the Customise Current Theme
option at the bottom, to get the Prezi exactly how you want it.


The far right of the toolbar contains the Settings menu and the Share
button. Downloading your Prezi as a PDF allows you to print it, which can be
useful.


Manipulating objects on Prezi




Final Prezi tips

Hidden Frames are the key to a really good Prezi. They allow you to make any area of the
Prezi a clickable area to zoom in on (rather than having to rely on zooming in on a specific
object) and they allow you to display text and image together in one view. Normal frames
(rather than hidden frames) accomplish the same thing, but it often looks better when
hidden frames are used.

To put in a Hidden Frame, go to Frames and then Hidden Frame, then use the mouse to
draw the box in the size you want. Hold down shift to maintain a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Perhaps the most important aspect of creating a Prezi is avoiding motion-sickness in the
viewer if the presentation lurches about in such a way as to make people feel ill, it
doesnt matter how amazing the content is. Position items sympathetically (so the view
moves logically, from left-to-right or top-to-bottom) and move between them evenly;
avoid an over-reliance on dramatic swoops and only change perspective and swing round
the bare minimum of times. Also, pace your Prezi much like you would a PowerPoint
lingering on each screen for a little while is a good way to ensure the presentation doesnt
whizz around too much.

You can save Prezis to a memory stick even without the Edu Enjoy subscription. Id
recommend doing this for all presentations, so youre not reliant on the internet working
and Prezi being okay (it does go down occasionally).



Links and more information

The Prezi used in this session is available via http://bit.ly/academicprezi.
Feel free to email me with any follow up queries: ned.potter@york.ac.uk.
This hand-out is available electronically at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/224324950/Prezi-in-the-Academic-Environment


Ned Potter
Academic Liaison Librarian
History of Art, Management, Philosophy, TFTV