Prezi - a Presentation Software Company

Prezi

Morgan Brunner

West Liberty University

        Prezi is a presentation software company that was founded in 2009 by Peter Arvai, Peter Halacsy, and Adam Somlai-Fischer. They founded Prezi while working together in Budapest, Hungary, and San Francisco, California.  Prezi is a web-based tool used for creating presentations. The Prezi company is a team of people who come together around a set of core values that guide a mission and shape our culture. It is similar to other presentation software such as Microsoft Powerpoint, but it provides more eye catching and engaging qualities.  A quote from Peter Arvai CEO & Cofounder, “Prezi helps you organize your thoughts and deliver them in a clearer way that really makes an impact on your audience and helps them reach that ‘ah-hah’ moment faster.” Prezi has been very popular is schools and businesses.

         Most presentation softwares use a slide-based approach where one simply moves back and forth between individual slides, like a book.  Prezi, on the other hand is a canvas-based approach.  Which means that instead of using slides, Prezi has one big canvas that one’s presentation moves around on, zooming in and out on different frames.  Prezi is very different from Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote.  It is completely free to use! There are upgrades that one can pay for that unlocks additional features, but one can easy still create a dynamic presentation free of cost. Prezi is also runs entirely through your web browser so it will always look the same regardless of what computer or software you are using.

        Creating a Prezi is very easy! If one is struggling to think of an idea or how to make their presentation different from everyone else’s, Prezi gives tips and advice on their website. First, one has to make an account using ones email address.  Then, Prezi gives you template options which one can build your presentation around. If one does not find a template which is suitable for what they need, one can build one from scratch though it is time consuming and rather difficult. Once one selects a template, it will open and will be ready to be edited. One can type text wherever he/she pleases and can also add any images he/she desires. Alone with the pictures, one can add videos or background music as well.  On Prezi, the background theme and color scheme can be changed along with the font and font size.

        Next, whether one is done working on their presentation or not, one can preview it at anytime. There is a button labeled “Present.” Once hit, it will bring up your presentation like you were about to give the presentation.  You can put it in full-screen by hitting the button labeled ‘full-screen.” To navigate through the slides, one can use the forward and backward arrows on the keyboard.  One can click any object to zoom in and view it and when done then click any empty space and it will zoom out. When one finishes his/her Prezi, they can make their presentation private, public, or share only with certain people via email.

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