I’m as tired of PowerPoint Presentations as the next person.  But then again, it’s important to get your message somehow.

I finally had time to dig into an online tool called Prezi (www.prezi.com) and found it a refreshing and compelling approach to the presentation software idea. The user interface is easy to learn and it took me about 30 minutes to figure out the majority of the tools to create a presentation.

The main control tool that allows you to write, format, create frames and paths, and view the show is shown below.  It appears in the top left hand corner.

Understanding the workflow:

1. Imagine a large piece of white butcher paper.  You can type and add pictures all over it.  Think of a brainstorming session where you put all your ideas down in any order.  You don’t have to know the overall picture from the start, just get down ideas and visuals.

Here’s a sample below:

2.  Click on the white butcher paper and add text, images, grouping main ideas and topics.

3.  Click on an item and you can move, enlarge, or rotate the object to your requirements (using tool below)

4.  Add frames around blocks of content (text, images).

5. Finally, create a path from first item to next and so on.  This creates the “slide order” or the path which the presentation will take.

Key concepts you will need to understand: frames and paths.  Frames group content together into one location.  Paths are used to connect pieces of content or frames of content.

Here’s my first Prezi presentation for an in-service I conducted.