Create impressive online presentations

Go to www.prezi.com. Click on the blue Sign Up button on the right-hand side of the screen then choose a licensing option. To sign up for the free version, which we’ll use for this Workshop, click the Get button at the foot of the Public column. Fill in the registration form, then click on Register and Continue. Prezi will generate and send an email to the supplied address. This contains links to a user manual, Twitter support address, and videos to help learn Prezi. A welcome screen will appear offering options to watch a video on how to use Prezi, view some Prezi presentations, or click Start to use Prezi immediately. Click Start.

Use the first two boxes to type in a title and a description for the presentation. Choose a style, then click on Create. Click on the Open Me button. As we’re using the free version of Prezi the presentation will be published on prezi.com, where members of the public will have access to it. If you want to make private presentations, you’ll need to sign up for a paid-for Prezi account. However, remove the tick from the Allow reuse box and other Prezi visitors will be prevented from saving an editable copy of your presentation. Click on the blue Open button.

Click on the play button to watch the welcome video, or click on the X in the top right-hand corner of the window to close it. We’re now ready to create a Prezi presentation. At the top left-hand side is a set of blue circles – the Bubble menu. This is a ‘zooming’ menu that contains most of the tools used in Prezi. Click on a blue circle to access the menu options. There is another menu in the top right-hand corner containing the Undo, Redo, Help, Exit and Save Options buttons. There are also two grey buttons down the right-hand side of the screen – zoom in and zoom out.

Double-click in a blank area, then type a heading. Notice that the Bubble menu is centred around Write. To amend the width of a text box, click and drag the arrows on the right of the text box. Later, when Prezi zooms in, the width of the text box will determine the zoom area – so try to resize the text boxes to the size of the text. The lined icons represent the text-alignment tools – left, centre, right and justify – and pressing one will affect the whole text box. To apply alignment to one line only, select the text first. Click OK or click in a blank area of the canvas.

Add some more ideas (or headings) by double-clicking in different areas. Click and drag the canvas to create more space, if necessary. To edit the text at any point, click on it – a new tool appears. Prezi called this the Transformation Zebra tool; and it is used to move, scale and rotate text. To move the text, click and drag the middle of the Zebra. To resize text click and drag the inner ring. Click and drag the outer ring of the Zebra tool to rotate text. Click on the ‘+’ symbol on the Zebra menu to access functions,such as delete and duplicate.

Zoom into the headings by either rolling the mouse scrollwheel (if your mouse has one) or by clicking the zoom buttons on the right-hand side of the screen. Add some more details to your ideas. Use the Zebra tool (click once on a piece of text to display the tool) to arrange the ideas on the canvas and adjust the text size. To add an image, click on Insert on the Bubble menu, then choose Load File. Navigate to the file location. Click on the file, then click on Open. Click on the image to access the Zebra tool to move, resize or rotate it.

To insert a shape, select Insert on the Bubble menu and choose Shapes. Select either the arrow, line or marker pen, then click and drag to draw the shape. Return to the Write option in the Bubble menu either by clicking first on the Insert bubble, then on Write, or by pressing the spacebar on the keyboard. Click on a shape to activate the Zebra tool. Use the tool to move, resize or rotate the shape. To move or scale a group of objects, select one object then click on the ‘+’ on the Zebra tool. Choose Select More. Click on each object, then click OK.

Frames can be applied to presentations to group ideas and navigate to multiple objects. Click on Frame in the Bubble menu and choose an option. Click and drag to draw a frame around a group of objects. When you have finished grouping objects, return to the Write option in the Bubble menu by pressing the Spacebar. Note that when either the Shapes or Frames menu is active, clicking and dragging will not move around the canvas as usual. Instead, hold down the X key on the keyboard and move the mouse. To see an overview of the presentation hold down Ctrl and press the Spacebar.

Prezi allows storylines to be added to presentations. To do this, select Path in the Bubble menu. The Add tool is automatically selected. Create the storyline by clicking on the parts of the presentation in the order that you want to show them. (If a storyline already exists, clicking on an object will add it to the end of the storyline.) To change the storyline order drag the feint blue marker (which appears between the path numbers) to the object to be included. To remove a path step drag the numbered circle onto the background. Alternatively click on Delete All from the Path option in the Bubble menu to start again.

To run the presentation, click on Show. Use the keyboard’s arrow keys to navigate through the presentation. The show will follow a storyline, if one has been set – but there’s no need to stick to this. Click on any object to zoom in or click on the background to zoom out, then use the right arrow key to resume the storyline. This allows much greater flexibility during a presentation – it is possible to zoom in to show detail or zoom out for an overview at any point. Alternatively you can use the up and down arrow keys to zoom in and out, and use the left and right arrows to move through the path.

To jump to any point in the storyline just click on any object, then click the right arrow key to continue from that point. In Show mode, Prezi’s menus will automatically hide. To have a menu reappear, hover the mouse pointer over its previous position to make it reappear. During a show, use the on-screen navigation icons that appear at the bottom right to choose a specific time between storyline points or automated timing. Left-click and hold down on these icons to see the options.

If text is not displayed as you want during a presentation, select Path in the Bubble menu and choose Delete All. Now work through the presentation zooming in or out to arrange the information on the screen just as you want, clicking Capture View in the Path menu at each juncture. This generates a frame around the zoomed area and adds a new point to the storyline. Return to the Write menu. To delete frames that are no longer needed, select the frame, then click on the plus sign (+) on the Zebra tool. Choose Delete.

Prezi automatically saves the presentation every few minutes. However, to manually save hover the mouse pointer over the Saved at message at the top right of the screen. It will change to ‘Save now?’ – click on it. To download the presentation, click on Exit in the top right-hand corner. Click on the presentation in the My Prezi window, click on the Download button, then Start downloading. Downloaded presentations will work on any computer (even ones without internet access) and can be saved to external devices, but can’t be edited. To amend a presentation, edit it online and download again.

Click on the X in the top right of the window when the download is complete. Use the Save a copy option to save a copy of the Prezi with a different title (this is handy if you want to modify a presentation but keep the original). Remember that when using the free version of Prezi, presentations will be automatically published and anyone can access them (so use of the Delete button after downloading will provide some privacy). Selecting the Share tab (down the left-hand side) enables users to invite others to view (or edit) the presentation. This also generates a bit of HTML code that can be used to embed a Prezi presentation to a blog or website. When done, click on Log out in the top right-hand corner.