FOR PROFESSIONALS Stand out from the crowd using the newest, most flexible presentation software in the most compelling way
JIM HARVEY & LESLEY BARRINGER
Prezi for Professionals
NOTICE OF RIGHTS
SEVENTH EDITION
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
Publication Date: September 2014
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
First edition: August 2012
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
Published by: Allcow Trading Company Ltd
critical articles or reviews.
Producer: Jim Harvey Writers: Jim Harvey & Lesley Barringer
NOTICE OF LIABILITY
Graphic Design: Rosie Hoyland
The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors and Allcow Trading Company Ltd, nor its dealers or distributors,
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
will be held liable for any damages caused either directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book, or by the software or hardware products described herein.
Call: +44 (0)1832 272773 (UK) Email:
[email protected]
Copyright © 2014 Jim Harvey
Jim’s Blog: www.jim-harvey.com
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original thinking-no bull
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Get ahead of the game Be a better presenter than the norm A speech or a presentation is an opportunity to shine and build your reputation among clients, peers and bosses. Perform well under such pressure, and a speaker races ahead in the estimation of the crowd; perform less well and that speaker falls away a little in the eyes of the audience. You're almost always as good as your last performance. We’ve been helping world-class speakers in businesses like JPMorgan, JC Decaux, Ford and the BBC, use Prezi professionally for over 4 years. We literally wrote the book; and here’s the latest one. Email:
[email protected] Call: +44 (0)1832 272773
Prezi is a fast-changing, ever-updating piece of software. Most of the other Prezi books on the shelves are out of date the moment they’re published. Ours is an eBook, and we update it every week. It’s never out of date and it’s written by people who work at the sharpest edge of the hard, commercial world that Prezi must survive in to prosper. Prezi can help you stand out even more as a presenter, but only if you use it better than most people, because most people use it badly. The advice in here is designed to help you add polish, poise and impact to your presentations with Prezi, whatever field you're in. Our mission is to help you stand out from the corporate crowd - to help you make the most of your best opportunities. We'll look at creating, rehearsing and performing powerful Prezi presentations that work where you work. We look at learning the basics of the tool, building advanced expertise, understanding the strengths and many weaknesses of this pedigree presentation tool. Our job is simple. To help you stay ahead of the Prezi pack.
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Contents chapter 1 Introduction8 About Prezi What we cover Why an eBook? How to use the book What you will need Sign up to Prezi
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chapter 2 What is Prezi?
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chapter 3 What makes a good Prezi?
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chapter 4 A practical guide to Prezi - the basics
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Things people say about Prezi Do you understand what Prezi can do? Uses for Prezi
Prezi principles
Let’s get started The Prezi Screen Editing Saving Adding to your canvas Frames The Path Creating complex paths Customize your Prezi Sharing a Prezi Embedding a Prezi Printing a Prezi Why Start From Scratch?
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chapter 5 A practical guide to Prezi - more advanced skills
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chapter 6 Use Prezi with skill
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chapter 7 Use Prezi’s big picture to make a great first impression
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chapter 8 Choose the right Prezi for the situation
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chapter 9 Remove sickness from the Prezi vocabulary
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chapter 10 Understand visual structure and layout
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Keyboard Shortcuts Prezi for Windows and Mac Adding Music or Sounds Diagrams Using Images Using Frames Layers can Hide Elements Selecting Multiple Elements Using Alignment Gridlines Using Powerpoint in Prezi Inserting PDF and Excel files Using PDFs to create a Prezi Using 3D Backgrounds Fading In Fading Out Make a patch Customise your Themes Using Fonts Using the CSS Editor Framing Videos Collaborating Hyperlinks iPad and iPhone app
Start with the Big Picture A Linear Prezi An Organic Prezi
Working with Proximity, Rotation and Zooming
‘In-Out’ or ‘Out-In’ stacking strategy Here’s how Step-by-step to stacking and layering
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chapter 11 Use templates to hit the ground running
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chapter 12 Presenting with Prezi - you choose how
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chapter 13 Preparing for your presentation
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3 reasons to use templates
With or without a path Remotely or face-to-face Online or Offline From a PC or laptop With Prezi for iPad and iPhone Connect your iPad & iPhone to a projector or TV What can you do if you have an Android phone or tablet? Present with a remote control device (clicker) Download and present a portable Prezi Click through manually or use the autoplay feature
Room Size Screen/Monitor Notes Preparation
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chapter 14 During your presentation
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chapter 15 Is Powerpoint dead?
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chapter 16 The Fit, Focus & Flair Model
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Embrace Tangents All Eyes on You Be Aware
Prezi’s Best Features Prezi vs. Powerpoint: A Summary What does Prezi do for a Poor Speech?
How to add Fit How to add Focus How to add Flair What is Clutter?
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chapter 17 Tips for...
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chapter 18 Further reading and support
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chapter 19 Our Prezi services
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Building a strong story Creating great visual aids Setting up on the day Starting brilliantly Freshening your delivery Using your voice The final polish
Great books Blogs we recommend for inspiration and practical help Any other questions Stay Up-to-Date
Prezi Training Prezi Design Prezi Graphics Packs Our Prezi Blog
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chapter 1 Introduction About Prezi
In a nutshell, Prezi is a ‘Flash’-based presentation software that allows users to create dynamic presentations that look different to a traditional PowerPoint slideshow. Different because you can do exciting things like zoom in and out across a large area, create motion paths, embed images and video and do things that previously weren’t possible for us non-design experts. It is a much more visual way to pass on your presentation message, wrapped up in an intuitive and easy to use piece of software, used online or on your desktop. Prezi does have its drawbacks and limitations, of course, and through the book we will pass on our hints, tips and experience to help you make the most of Prezi to create stand-out presentations.
What we cover
In Prezi for Professionals you will find out: • What Prezi is and why it’s different • What makes a good Prezi • How to use the tool - a practical Prezi guide at Basic and Advanced levels • How to use Prezi with skill • The best ways to use Prezi’s big picture to make a great first impression • Understanding the visual structure and layout of a great Prezi • Plenty of support material to help you continue progressing with your Prezi presentations We strongly believe that it is worth understanding what Prezi is, its benefits and weaknesses and how you can use it well, before getting started with the tool itself. You will then be in a great position to start putting all the information and best practice into action when you begin learning the mechanics of Prezi.
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Why an eBook?
We chose to write an eBook rather than an ‘in-print’ version for many reasons. We want our book to be as up-to-date as the software you’ve chosen to learn, and not be limited by a hard-copy. As Prezi is a relatively new tool, and is still being developed and changed frequently, the ‘in-print’ books are out of date in no time at all. Writing an eBook has allowed us to include live links to examples, resources and more, all of which are regularly updated and give you a broader view of Prezi and what it can and can’t do.
How to use the book
We have used our experience as learners, as well as trainers, of Prezi, to organise our book into a relevant progression of information and skills: a mixture of study and practical skills; and tips. You will see reminders where we point out particular tips relevant to the area being covered, and also content from our website to support the particular area you are working on. The Contents Page is interactive so you can navigate the book by clicking on the section you need. The Home Button on the top of the pages will take you back to the contents. You can read the book from cover to cover, dip in and out as you please, or simply jump to the section you need.
What you will need
Once you have your Prezi account/license, all you need are a computer and an internet connection. There are three license options to choose from and below we will take you through what is included in each. It is worth signing up at this point, as you will want to explore Prezi and have the tool ready to use throughout the book.
We recommend using a mouse if you are working on a laptop, as it’s more comfortable than using the navigation pad for creating and editing your Prezi.
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Sign up to Prezi
Visit Prezi and choose your pricing plan. The right license for you will depend on why and how you plan to use Prezi, but it can be completely free of charge.
Unlike other software, Prezi has an online system. From it you will be able to: • Create and Edit • Save and Share • Collaborate • Download • Store images, assets and collections • Present with a wireless connection • Explore and View public Prezis Prezi for Windows and Mac includes Prezi Desktop which allows you to work on, and present a Prezi, without an internet connection, save your presentation and automatically sync with your Prezi.com account. For more information see the section - Prezi for WIndows and Mac. One of the key differences between the Public license and the Enjoy and Pro is that any Prezi that you create on the Public license will be visible to anyone using Prezi. If you need your presentations to be private, or only shared with specific people, you will need an Enjoy or Pro license.
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Prezi also offers two great Education Packages for Students and Teachers which include private Prezis as standard.
As the Enjoy and Pro licenses offer a 30 day free trial, it’s worth signing up for the Pro license to have a go with it to see if it’s the right one for you.So, now you are signed up with Prezi, let’s get started.
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chapter 2 What is Prezi? Prezi is a presentation aid which can help you to deliver complex messages in engaging, dynamic ways. Unlike a PowerPoint presentation, you have a blank canvas of almost unlimited size to work with. You can lay out all of your ideas like a brainstorm, set the path your presentation will take through them – zooming and linking ideas, pausing along the way to take in videos, animations, and memorable images.
Things people say about Prezi
It’s got lots of strengths, but: “It makes me feel sea sick!” “It’s beautiful!” “It’s exciting.” Prezi presentations can be all of those things, depending on their creator. But Prezi itself is none of them. It is a presentation tool like any other, and as such is as exciting, clever and engaging as the presenter who uses it. This is a guide for those who want to use Prezi as a tool to create presentations which stand out, hammer home their message, and start conversations. A great thing doesn’t automatically create greatness, and as such a Prezi is only as good as the hands which craft it, so just teaching you the tools available isn’t enough if you want to make something truly great. We focus on the art of crafting your presentation – from the early stages of planning, through deciding how to use Prezi, to the day itself, to give you the high impact you need to get your message across. We will teach you the gentle nuances which make each of the tools valuable – and how to use them to create something beautiful. After all, even Christian Bale takes acting classes.
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Do you understand what Prezi can do?
Before you learn about using Prezi’s tools, we think it’s important to see it in action. First though, remember that a Prezi is a visual aid to go alongside a presentation. That means each ‘frame’ will be shown for anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. If you rush through the presentation to get a feel for it, the zooming and panning may seem excessive and nauseating. Try to imagine the Prezi being shown slowly, alongside a speech: • Who can explain it better than the people who created it? This video showcases why and how you can use Prezi to bring your presentations to life. • Here you can take a look at some of the Prezis we have used recently. So, Prezi is different from other presentation software. It has a huge blank canvas without a slide in sight!
To this canvas you can add text, images, video, diagrams and almost anything else to help you tell your story.
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By using frames to organise your ‘assets’ on the canvas you can choose where and in what order Prezi visits them. You can also decide when your assets will appear. Here we have used bracket frames to make it easier to demonstrate, but there are other types of frames, including invisible, which we will cover later.
By using this straightforward process, you can create complex or simple; formal or organic Prezis that can help you tell your story in an exciting way. Prezi can help your audience see the ‘Big Picture’ and the important links in your presentation, making it more memorable and easier to follow. The visual, linking and flowing nature of Prezi allows you to engage both sides of the viewer’s brain, increase their enjoyment and the odds of them remembering your message.
Uses for Prezi
Prezi is a good tool for presenting, but can also be used in many other ways. Keep these other uses in mind as you progress through the book. • Embedding content on your website for your users to see your ideas, products and services in more detail, with or without narration. • As a meeting and brainstorming tool to bring teams together anywhere in the world. • In public areas of your business premises as a touch screen presentation to give customers access to information about your products and services. • A self-running presentation as a part of a conference stand or marketing event. • On a tablet as business discussion tool – flexible and informal. • Create learning modules hosted on your intranet to share knowledge with employees or clients. Prezi can be a fantastic tool to support your message however you are delivering it. Having looked at what Prezi can do, we want to show you how to use it to make amazing Prezi presentations.
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chapter 3 What makes a good Prezi? Although we are going to cover these areas in more detail, we think that it is important that you have these broad principles in mind for Prezi best practice as you work through the book. These are the points that will make the difference between you just creating a Prezi and creating one which stands out for all the right reasons. They are the foundations to what makes a great Prezi.
Prezi principles
Good quality images Poor quality images will pixelate and blur in Prezi. Png, jpeg, gif and pdf formats are all supported in Prezi but can pixelate depending on the quality and zoom. Flash files such as .swf work well as they don’t pixelate and are about 10% of the size of other formats. A Prezi can be let down by poor images, regardless of how great your story is.
Not too much panning, spinning and zooming This is the most common mistake that people make when creating a Prezi. Prezi’s main features are panning, spinning and zooming and many people feel they should use them at every opportunity. This can make an audience feel sick, confused and unlikely to remember what you have shown them – apart from the fact that they didn’t enjoy the experience. These features can really help if used well; zooming in for emphasis and to give the illusion of depth, out for an overview and panning for distinction.
Relevant Big Picture There is a lot of talk in Prezi about the Big Picture. It can often be a source of stress when planning a Prezi, particularly if you aren’t naturally creative. Really when we talk about a Big Picture, we mean a visual, a look or a theme that will suit your message and help share it. It can be one image that you zoom to relevant areas to make your points, or a collection of images, logos and text which form a whole.
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Well planned and structured Prezi has a large blank canvas which allows creativity and freedom. It can also lead you to create a confused and disjointed presentation. You will need to plan carefully, and add the structure to make a clear and memorable Prezi which supports your message.
Clear message Be clear and concise when you decide what you are including in your presentation. The whole aim of your presentation is to convey a message to your audience, and your Prezi has to strengthen rather than weaken it.
De-clutter Just because you can throw lots of things at the Prezi canvas, doesn’t mean you should. Being selective with what you include emphasises your story and makes it much easier to follow and remember. Be restrained. With these areas in mind we’ll now move on to getting you started using Prezi.
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chapter 4 A practical guide to Prezi - the basics In this section, we want to get you started and confident using Prezi’s canvas and tools. We have added links to help reinforce what you have learned.
Let’s get started
How to start a new Prezi When you open your Prezi account, you will arrive at the ‘Your Prezis’ section. Click on the button to start a new Prezi. For now, ignore the choice of templates and click on ‘Start blank Prezi’. You will now see your Prezi screen in Edit mode with a blue circular frame already added; click on the blue frame, and then on the delete button above it. You can now start using Prezi with a clear canvas.
The Prezi Screen
In Edit and Present Mode When using Prezi, there are two modes to use: Edit and Present. Here is the screen that you will see when you are working on your Prezi. This is in Edit mode, where you create and edit your presentation.
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By default, Prezi starts in Edit Mode. To switch to Present Mode simply click the Present button in the top-right corner of the screen.
Use the Present button to playback your presentation and check on your progress. This view gives a clearer idea of the balance and appearance of each path point your presentation visits.
The arrows at the bottom take you forwards and backwards through your presentation. You can also navigate by clicking and dragging the blue circle on the left. As you drag it along it will show you which path point you are at.
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Clicking on the Autoplay icon in the bottom left corner allows you to play your Prezi ‘slideshow’ style and choose how many seconds between path points. To return to Edit Mode, you can click the pencil icon in the top-right corner of the screen. If you can’t see the pencil it’s because the menu has auto hidden it. Hover your mouse over the right-hand corner and it will reappear.
Moving around the canvas Moving around your Prezi canvas is made easy by clicking and dragging with a mouse to pull the canvas where you want it to go, or using the home or + and – buttons as shown here. The buttons appear on the right hand side of your screen when you move your cursor into that area.
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The Prezi Canvas is huge. If you start zoomed in or out too far, you won’t have much zoom left to play with once you begin adding to your canvas. Add some text, or an object and use it to see how far in or out it is positioned.
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Editing
The Prezi Undo Button Luckily for all of us, Prezi has an infinite Undo button. You can experiment with confidence, secure in the knowledge that you can undo as much as you want! It is also worthwhile saving regular versions of the Prezi you are working on. This avoids having too many changes between versions as you may find that you prefer an earlier copy.
Transformation tool The Transformation Tool is going to be your new best friend. When you add a frame, object or text to Prezi, click on it once to bring up the Transformation Tool. This allows you to rotate, move or scale your content. When you right click on a frame, object or text, you will see a dropdown list of options to help you manage your Prezi design. We will be covering these options later in the book.
For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22637573
Selecting To select an object, text or frame on your Prezi canvas, you need to click on it. You will know that it has been selected when a blue line appears around it as in the Transformation Tool image. If it hasn’t got a blue line, it isn’t selected. If you are having trouble selecting something, try zooming in or out a little on the canvas. If that doesn’t work, you may need to send forwards or backwards, or ungroup an item. These subjects are covered in the sections - Sending items forwards or backwards and Grouping and ungrouping.
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Saving
Save your work There are a number of ways to save your Prezi. When working on your Prezi online, Prezi regularly auto saves, and there is also a Save button. When you exit a Prezi on Prezi.com, it will automatically save your presentation. Always give it a relevant name and version number, or it will remain as Untitled Prezi.
Remember
Save regular versions of the Prezi you are working on; you may find that you prefer an earlier version. It is also worth saving in this way before you try something new and radical with your Prezi! In Your Prezis, click on the title and edit the text. We cover saving your Prezi as a PDF file for printing in the section - Printing a Prezi. We’ll cover using Prezi Desktop (Prezi for Windows and Mac), in the section Prezi for Windows and Mac.
Adding to your canvas
To make life easier, we will start with text, images, symbols, shapes and video and move on to diagrams and music later.
Text To add text, click anywhere on your canvas and a text box will appear.
Type your content in the box. Choose from the Title, Subtitle and Body options and also size and colours for your text. It is possible to customise all of these options in Themes via the Template button and we cover this and more in the section - Customise Your Prezi. When you have entered your text, you can move it around by simply clicking and dragging it to where you want it to be. To alter the orientation of the text, click on the text, hover over a corner, click on the circle and drag to rotate the text. Use the corners to drag and re-size or use the + and – buttons. All these actions use the Transformation Tool.
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Another useful text feature is background colour for your text.
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When sizing text, you will know that it is the same size as other text on your canvas when a blue line appears around the text. As Prezi doesn’t give you a font size, this is really useful if you need text to be uniform in size. Practise sizing text and watch out for the helpful blue lines.
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Images Inserting an image is very simple. Click on the Insert button from the top of your screen and select Image. In the box that appears, you can choose images from the web or your computer.
Once the image shows in your Prezi, you can move it around and size it using the Transformation Tool click and highlight method we used before with text.
You will also notice extra choices above the image in the Transformation Tool. ‘Replace’ allows you to replace one image with another, whilst maintaining the same dimensions. ‘Crop Image’ allows you to select a part of the image and crop it. ‘Delete’ is self-explanatory but ‘Effects’ are a new addition to Prezi which can be really useful if you don’t have image editing software, or are pushed for time.
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Symbols and shapes Adding symbols and shapes is very easy. Simply click on Insert, choose Symbols and Shapes and select what you need.
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To add it to the canvas, click and drag your object into place. You will see the choices available for editing via the Transformation Tool as shown below. The choices will vary depending on which shape or symbol you choose.
For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22385597
Lines and Arrows Click on Insert and choose Draw arrow or Draw line. Click on the canvas and stretch the arrow or line to the length you need. This can be edited as shown in the image below.
By clicking and dragging the central selection point, you can create curved arrows and lines.
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Highlighter To use the highlighter, click again on Insert and select Highlighter.
Draw what highlight you need onto your Prezi canvas. We will cover how to edit the colour of your Highlighter in the section - Customise your Themes.
Video To insert a YouTube video you need to go first to YouTube, select your clip, click on share, and copy the link that appears. Then click on Insert on your Prezi screen, select YouTube Video, paste the link in and click insert.
To find out how to add a video that doesn’t rely on an internet connection, see the section on Using video for offline presentations.
My Content There will be images and objects that you may want to use more than once. Rather than copying and pasting assets into your Prezi each time, using ‘My Content’ is much simpler. It is a place to store your content where it can be accessed from any Prezi you are working on. This will make your Prezi process much simpler. To add an asset to My Content, click on the asset, right-click on the Transformation Tool hand and select Favorite. To access the asset and others you have added, click on Insert and My Content. You now have a choice of Favorites or From Prezis. Favorites is where you will see the asset you have added. Drag the one you want to use onto your canvas.
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To add content from another Prezi in your library, select From Prezis instead of Favorites. Here you are able to access and add content (including whole frames), from any Prezi you have Editor access to. Again, drag the content that you need onto the canvas.
For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://prezi.com/support/ article/creating/my-content/
Frames
We recommend always putting your content into a frame. This is because you can then control where the content will be positioned, and how it will look on the screen when you are presenting. You can choose visible or invisible frames, depending on the look you are after. If you don’t use a frame, the Prezi software will try and work out where the content should go, with varying results.
For online guidance: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/entries/22378913-Frames
Creating Frames To add a frame using the frame feature, click on the +frame image (as shown here), and drag the frame on to your canvas.
You can select which type of frame you want to use by clicking on the box underneath.
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The frame can also be clicked and dragged onto the canvas. We cover sizing in detail in the section – Creating the right size and shaped frame
Editing a frame Once your frame is created, it can be removed and the style can still be altered. Click on the frame and the Transformation Tool and a box with the choices will appear as shown here.
To edit a frame, click on it. It is selected when it has a blue line around it. To re-size the frame and keep the same shape, click on any of the four corners and drag. To change the orientation of the frame, click to highlight and hover with your cursor over a corner and another blue circle will appear. Drag this to rotate the frame into the position you need.
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Creating the right size and shape frame When inserting your frames it is important to consider what shape/size you want them. You can simply insert or draw any size frame, but you really need to consider what screen you are going to be presenting on. By doing this at the beginning, you can save lots of work adjusting the presentation later. Prezi call this Aspect Ratio.
If you create your Prezi in 16:9 Screen Ratio, but then present on a 4:3 screen, not all of your presentation will be on view as planned. Usually, a laptop, monitor or TV will have a 16:9 Screen Ratio and an overhead projector a 4:3 but it is always worth checking! Once you have decided on a frame size, you can add or draw frames that will always look their best on your screen. You can draw frames by holding the SHIFT key while you drag your cursor. When you have reached the correct size and shape a blue 16:9 or 4:3 will appear. You can then let go of the SHIFT key. Use the Path Preview window to see exactly what will be seen when you are presenting. For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22412268-working-withaspect-ratios
The Path
Adding a path The path is the part of Prezi that specifies which bits of your content will be visited, and in what order. There are two ways to add frames to a path. Click on the frame to bring up the Transformation Tool, right click and select ’Add to Path’, or click on the ‘Edit Path’ button on the left panel and click on the frames in the order you want them to appear. You will then see the path that your frames will take during your presentation. To alter the order of the path points, click on the frames in the Left Sidebar, and drag them up or down into the position you want. On the canvas you can also click and drag the number which is next to your path point and move it to another object/frame to change the order of your presentation. All of these actions need to be carried out in Edit Path mode using the button on the left.
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For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22428183-Setting-your-Prezis-path
Creating complex paths
Animation Animating a frame’s contents allows you to select what order the objects appear within a frame. This way you can control what the audience sees, and when.
In Edit Path mode, click on the star next to the number of the path point you want to animate. A box like the one above will appear which includes all your frame contents. Click on each object in the order you want them to animate (appear). A green star with the order number will appear next to the object. If you change your mind, you can click on Reset and start again.
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In the previous image, we selected just two animations. we could have ungrouped the word cloud/phrases on the canvas and had each phrase appear individually. Ungrouping is covered in the section – Grouping and ungrouping. Remember that grouped items cannot be animated as separate elements in the frame, after they have been grouped together. If you group elements after you have animated them individually in a frame it can remove the animation altogether.
Sending items forwards or backwards When you have created a path and layers in your Prezi, you may have more than one text box or object in a frame, and often layered on top of each other. Sending forwards and backwards is a useful way to access, view and edit your content.
For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/23449898-The-next-level#layer
Grouping and ungrouping Grouping objects and text is really useful. It allows you to move them around together and not lose their position. For example if you add text to an object, by grouping them, you are able to move them around collectively rather than adjusting each item separately. To select objects for grouping hold down CTRL (command on Macs) and click on all the objects you want to group. You can also hold down the SHIFT key and drag your mouse to select the objects. When you release, the Transformation Tool will appear. Click on the Group button to group. To ungroup items when you have them in the position you are happy with, or you want them to animate and appear one by one, simply ungroup the selection by clicking on the group. The Transformation Tool will appear. Click the Ungroup button to ungroup. This feature becomes increasingly useful for organising complex content as your presentations develop. © Jim Harvey 2014
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Remember
Be aware that if you animate a group of objects, and then later un-group them, it will affect the animation. Check by presenting and then re-setting the animation.
For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22368651-Grouping-content
Multiple use of the same frame in a path When using Prezi and a big picture, it is a good idea to re-visit important path points to prevent your audience becoming lost in the zooms and pans of your presentation. Using Prezi there is no need to copy and add the frame to your path. In Edit Path mode, simply click on the frame again at the path point you want it to visit.
Layers One of the great advantages of using Prezi is the capacity to layer your presentation. This can add depth, interest and is unique to Prezi. By zooming in close on your Prezi canvas you can add frames to ‘deeper’ areas of your presentation. It helps to think of your Prezi as a 3D entity, so that in the planning stage you can consider where to add layers. From a Prezi point of view, you are only limited by how far you can zoom in on the canvas. However, to create a successful presentation you need to be disciplined and not add multiple layers just because you can. When planning your layers remember not to zoom all over your Prezi! Avoid panning long distances across your canvas, or zooming in and out from top to bottom layer, as your audience can feel dizzy and lose the thread of the message you are trying to convey. Once you have your story which is clear and concise you can then: • Decide where you are going to start (bottom layer and zoom out or top layer and zoom in). • Choose which frames will be on which layer. • Decide which content to animate (make appear).
Customize your Prezi
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Theme It is a good idea to choose your theme before you start your Prezi. You can always alter and adjust it later if necessary. A theme sets your background colour, font type, size and colour and the colour of frames. Click on the Customize button at the top of your screen. Select a theme from the selection shown or click on Advanced.
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It is easy to customise even small parts of the theme, by changing the selections in the Theme Wizard. In Advanced, click on Wizard and scroll through your options using the Next and Back buttons. When you become more experienced you can customise further using the Advanced setting as shown in the next image. This enables you to specify particular colours using RGB colour codes. This is really useful if you are matching your Prezi to company colours or a specific image.
Background Select your background colour using the Theme Wizard. Remember that the background colour will have an effect on the theme and text colour you have chosen to use.3D Backgrounds can look great, but use with caution as they can often distract rather than add to your presentation. See the section on Using 3-D Backgrounds. You can also adda background image of your own, by clicking on the Choose File under the Background image as shown on the previous image. Be careful not to use an image that will distract from your Prezi, or pixelate when you zoom.
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Font type, colour and size Use Theme Wizard to choose your font style and colour. You have three selections to make for Title 1, Title 2 and Body.
As you can see from the box here, the button labels reflect the font style and colour as it will appear in your presentation.
This helps you decide which Title, Subtitle or Body to use. By clicking on the other buttons, you can alter the appearance further still. A relatively new feature is the Background Text Colour, which is the button with an A on a square. Here you can choose if you would like to highlight your text by adding a background colour to it.
Sharing a Prezi
Sharing via Prezi.com The sharing function on Prezi is very useful tool. It lets you to share your Prezis with others, allowing them to view or edit. In Your Prezis, the Share button is under the window of the Prezi you have selected.
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When you click on the Share button you will see the following window:
To share your Prezi you can add people by clicking in the ‘+ Add people by email’ box and typing in their email address. You can then choose if you want them to be able to edit the Prezi or simply view it. When you click on Add, they will receive an email with a link to access the Prezi. An alternative way to share the Prezi for people to view, is to copy the link and send it direct via email. You can send this link to as many recipients as you need. Although this is a valuable tool for sharing your Prezi with colleagues, codesigners and clients, take note of the differences between the sharing options and what it allows the recipient to do with your Prezi. For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22439286#share
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Private, hidden, public, reuseable You can choose the privacy level of your Prezi and you will need to decide which setting suits the Prezi you are working on. Private means that only people added using their email address can access the Prezi as a viewer or editor. Hidden allows anyone with the link to view the Prezi. Public, as you would guess, is public and anyone searching on Prezi.com can view it. Reuseable gives people the opportunity to copy your Prezi and use it as their own. To make your selection click on either the Share button, or the button on the right which says Hidden in this example.
You can then select which privacy level is appropriate for you, by clicking on the heading as shown here. Your privacy level will always be shown in the right-hand corner under your Prezi.
For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22439286
Folders Prezi has added a feature, Folders, which allows you to not only organise your Prezis into folders, but share them too. On your Prezi homepage you will see the following.
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To move your chosen Prezi into the folder, click on it and drag it to the folder. When you have lots of Prezis to organise, you will find this feature really helpful. To share a folder with someone, click on the folder you want to share and click Add Viewer. In the pop-up type the email address of the person you want to give access to the folder and then click Add. The person will receive an email with a link for them to click on to access the folder. If they do not have a Prezi account, they will need to sign up for one, before they can view the folder. For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/23433054
Embedding a Prezi
Embedding a Prezi in HTML Embedding Prezis on your website or blog is simple using copied and pasted HTML code. The file is smaller and viewers can stay on your site, rather than following a link that takes them elsewhere. Use the Share button as above to access the Embed selection. Decide if you want your viewers to simply click through the path points, or pan and zoom too, and select the choice as above. For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22451538-Embedding-Prezis
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Printing a Prezi
Printing a Prezi When printing a Prezi, the Prezi software will convert your presentation into a PDF format. Each path point will be printed in the order that they would present. If that wouldn’t work well as a printed document, save a copy of the Prezi and re-organise the path points into a suitable order for printing.
Click on the Share button and select Download as PDF, and then choose Save PDF. You will now have an opportunity to save your file in a useful place on your computer. For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22434133
Why Start From Scratch?
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Do you know how to find existing Prezis to edit? Many Prezi creators leave their presentations open for other people to use, so if you like the layout, image, animation or anything else in a Prezi you see, you can take out what you want and use it for your own. Start here to view reusable Prezis, and find one that you like. Then, beneath the toolbar, click on the “make a copy” option, to save a copy of that Prezi which you can edit in your Your Prezi page.
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chapter 5 A practical guide to Prezi - more advanced skills In this chapter we will help you build on the practical Prezi skills that you have learned so far, and get the best out of the advanced features available on Prezi.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts make everything faster and smoother. Here’s a list of the shortcuts you can use when creating your Prezi online or on the desktop version: http://Prezi.com/learn/keyboard-shortcuts If they don’t work, you need to enable shortcuts via the settings menu on the top-right of the Prezi you are editing.
Prezi for Windows and Mac
Prezi for Windows and Mac is available to everyone registered with Prezi. It allows you to view, present and save your Prezis offline on your computer. If you are using the Pro or Edu Pro license, you will be able to use Prezi for WIndows and Mac to edit offline too.
You can choose which of your Prezis you want to sync with Prezi.com and which to keep exclusively on your computer. This can be a really useful feature if you can’t rely on a good internet commection when you present your Prezi. It also means, for Pro and Edu Pro users that you can edit anywhere and right up to the time you need to present. For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/23207809
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Adding Music or Sounds
Add background music or sounds to your Prezi If you want your Prezi to have music or narration playing in the background, (occasionally useful for presenters, but very useful for those using Prezi as an embedded presentation online), you can do it pretty easily since March 2013. There are two kinds of sounds you can add to a Prezi. The first is a background track that will continuously play whenever your Prezi is viewed. Important Note: Currently, Prezi supports the following audio file formats: MP3, M4A, FLAC, WMA, WAV, OGG, AAC, MP4, 3GP. For more information on which software applications you can use to create these kinds of files, click here. Here’s how to do it: 1. Click on “Insert” 2. Choose “Add background music” 3. You can see that the music has been added by looking at the top of the “Edit-path” navigation bar on the left and that’s where you delete the music as well.
Remember
If you add a video to your path where there is a backing track playing, Prezi will automatically cut the music to allow the video sound track to play, then restart the music once you click away from the video.
Add sounds at a specific moment of your Prezi presentation Alternatively, you can add sounds to specific path steps. These will begin to play only when you reach the chosen path step. They will stop playing when you move to the next path step. 1. Select or record your sound file. You can do this with your PC (soundrecorder) or a smart phone/digital recorder. 2. Select the relevant step of your path in the “Edit-path” navigation bar on the left 3. Click on “Insert” 4. Choose “Add voice-over to path step [#]” Remember, most sound file types will work and Prezi will convert them via upload, if necessary. Once inserted, you can easily delete sounds from the path step by using the “Edit-path” menu on the left.
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Diagrams
Prezi has a selection of diagrams to choose from. They all come complete with a path when you insert them, which you will see in the Path Preview window on the left of your canvas. They are flexible to use, as the individual components are editable and can be moved, sized and copied. The frame style can be changed and the path points can be re-ordered or removed to suit your needs.
For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22368531-Diagrams
Using Images
Prezi supports JPG, PNG, GIF and SWF files. For images, beware of JPGs and bitmaps; they are big files and can pixelate on zooming. Flash files (SWF) or some PDF images are usually the best. If your JPGs and bitmaps are good quality, you may find that they don’t pixelate, but this will depend on the quality of the source image, how you are planning to use them and how much zoom will be involved. A little trial and error is often required. In this image you will see two Prezi logos that look quite similar.
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However, if we zoom in to the image on the left you will see that because it is a poor quality JPG image it pixelates. The image on the right is cropped from a PDF document with good quality source images.
As a basic principle, Prezi zooms better with Flash (.swf ) files because Flash images don’t pixelate close-up. They’re also about 10% of the file size of an identical bitmap (.jpg, .png etc.) image, which means you can have better quality images with less stress on your video drivers and processors when you’re presenting. This stops all that jerkiness that you sometimes get with Prezi. PDF’s can work too, but if the images in a PDF are of low quality, then they’ll pixelate too, so be careful. Flash is an Adobe product and buying their software used to be very expensive, even for business users. Now however, you can get Adobe’s Creative Suite for around $50 a month so for professionals, there’s no excuse not to have Illustrator, Photoshop and Flash animation software that you can use to make your Prezis look amazing. For the student, amateur or smaller business, if you can’t afford that Adobe option, you can download free programmes like ‘Inkscape’, and ‘Gimp’ to help you create professional quality vector images. Inkscape can handle and export Prezi compatible vector files with about 80% of the features of the Adobe Illustrator product. GIMP is a pretty fully featured drawing and design programme that is a great place to start for diagrams, flowcharts, illustrations and backgrounds. Insert graphics - find out what can and can’t go in. Insert Flash files - for low-weight images, video and animations
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Using Frames
Use frames in your path, and put things in frames rather than individual items in the path When you add lots of things to your canvas, as you create and work on your ideas, be sure to use frames to group and place even individual images, words, videos or other objects. Things can easily get lost (because of layering or scaling issues) and you can lose track of any kind of flow in your presentation if you don’t. To avoid this problem, and the dubious joys of searching a massive canvas for a small thing: • Once you have added something to a frame, add it to the path immediately. • Then if you “lose” that bit of your Prezi, you can just click on the frame in the navigation bar on the left and Prezi will take you back there… NB - Get into the habit of using the Path Preview window to navigate through your Prezi as you edit, to avoid all of that clicking and dragging on the canvas, which can cause you to move images, backgrounds and elements by accident and mess up your day.
Layers can Hide Elements
Remember that layers can hide elements behind one another Sometimes when you add an element on top of another element it will mysteriously disappear. More often than not, it will have gone behind the thing that is on top. Don’t panic, it is still there, and you can still select it even though you can’t see it, by “Shift/dragging” with your mouse. In order to move things from the front/back of the canvas you can select (even the hidden elements) by holding down the “Shift” key and dragging your mouse pointer over the area you think that the hidden element lies. Once it’s selected through the visible top object, just right click over the hand icon and choose ‘bring to front’ and your hidden item will be brought to the top of the ‘building’, and into view.
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Selecting Multiple Elements
Select multiple elements on a Prezi canvas 1. Hold down the “Shift” button on your computer, then click and hold your left mouse button while you drag the pointer over the canvas to select several elements. 2. Click one element, hold down the “Shift” button on your computer, keep holding “Shift”, click on the next element and continue until everything you want is selected. 3. Sometimes if there are lots of things you want to select, and only a few that you don’t, just “Shift/drag” with your mouse and select everything, then deselect the few things that you don’t want by “Shift/clicking” on the unwanted elements one at a time.
Using Alignment Gridlines
Using Prezi’s alignment gridlines helps you to keep objects in line and to size them the same.
Using Powerpoint in Prezi
Use the assets in your existing PowerPoint presentations - but don’t just import into Prezi and add a path Prezi purists will groan at the very thought, but importing a PowerPoint presentation into Prezi has a few useful possibilities. To add a PowerPoint presentation to your Prezi, click on the Insert button and select Add PowerPoint. You can automatically import lots of text and images into the Prezi environment in a few clicks. Prezi uploads your PowerPoint presentation to its servers, splits all of the text, images and SmartArt, saves them as separate elements, then downloads them all to your Prezi canvas as separate “slides” with all of the elements in each slide grouped together in separate frames.
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Remember that (online) you can add all of those lovely images, charts and diagrams that you’ve got in your massive PPT collection to your Prezi “My Collection” in a faster and simpler way than importing images one by one. To do that, just right click on the hand icon when you’ve selected each image that you’ve imported to the canvas and choose “Add to my Collection”. Prezi then copies this element to your own, private gallery of assets that you can use in any presentation you create online in future.
Use imported PowerPoint presentations carefully Once imported, you can use all or some of your original slide layouts in your Prezi, and Prezi will have separated all of the individual elements from each slide so you can treat each differently and ‘Prezify’ the slides as you want. Prezi layers the elements that made up your slides as best it can. Sometimes this means that it will have got it wrong, and you may find text behind background images and chaos all around. So be warned and use the tips in Layers Can Hide Elements to bring elements to the front or send things to the back to reorder your slides. Check out this tutorial to find out how to import and edit your PowerPoint slides. Read Dan Steer’s post which explains how to do a this well.
Inserting PDF and Excel files Using PDFs to create a Prezi
Using 3D Backgrounds
PDF and Excel files - easy importing makes adding graphs and more technical information painless.
You can create a great Prezi by simply importing and cropping PDF documents. This is particularly useful if you have company colours, logos and pre-existing assets and documents to use. Just add your text, or crop that from the PDF too and you have a Prezi. This can also work well if you are using a Prezi for planning purposes or a meeting.
Use 3D backgrounds carefully - they’re OK with single images but a bit of an irritant otherwise. The people at Prezi are very enthusiastic about 3D. It’s actually a bit of a con. The backgrounds that are possible with 3D and multiple 3D are potentially good but practically impossible to use with any accuracy. Some simple 3D backgrounds work well in a Prezi but precise alignment against that background is almost impossible. Prezi asks you to upload the background image via the theme dialog box, and you have no control over where it lies as you lay your content over that background, and Prezi decides how to align the elements with the background image, not you.
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It gets worse when you use multiple images. Essentially you can add different background images that appear as you zoom ‘deeper’ into the Prezi. Working out when the image changes is a matter of trial and error which has often seemed time consuming and not worth the effort to me. Follow this link to see how to do it for single image and multiple image backgrounds.
Fading In
Fade things into a frame to reduce ‘panning’ Sometimes it can be handy to have things fade-in onto the screen just like we do in PowerPoint. See our section on Animation to see how to achieve this in Prezi. It’s very easy to fade in pictures, videos, and other frames (including all of their contents) in a frame. Fade-In animation - giving your presentation a ‘Powerpoint feel’.
Fading Out
Fade things out to allow you to stay in one place on the canvas and avoid even more panning Officially you can’t fade things out, but you can do a simple work-around if you think of layers. You just need to be a little creative. Here’s a sample of a short Prezi we made recently where the image fades in (Using the animate inside a frame option); then it seems to fade out again. It doesn’t really fade out, it’s just that we: 1. created a flash (.swf ) ‘patch’ in the same colour as the background, and the same shape as the object we were covering, and 2. inserted the .swf (though any image type would work) patch into the same frame as the original image it was going to cover. 3. made sure that the patch was in front (on top) of the image to be covered. 4. Then we animated the patch to fade in after the original image, and the effect is that it fades in, then fades out. You can add more content on top of the patch and continue your presentation from there.
Make a patch
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To make a patch to Fade Out or to cover an unwanted section of an image, simply copy and paste the image, or use it from your collection; crop a section that will match the area you want to patch, using the crop tool, and put it over the area you want to cover. If you are using it to cover an unwanted section, don’t forget to group the assets so that they will appear as one.
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Customise your Themes
Customise your themes with bespoke colours, fonts and formatting. Prezi’s default themes are quite limited, but you can adjust and save up to 5 themes to suit your brand, using the Template menu and Theme Wizard as shown here:
You can custom format the colours and fonts via the theme wizard in Prezi. 1. Go to Customize at the centre top of your workspace. 2. Click on Advanced at the bottom of the right sidebar. 3. Click on “Advanced” and choose your colours, background images, logos, line and frame colours etc. 4. Choose “Done” and you’ll see all of your changes reflected in the Prezi you’re working on. Follow this link for more information.
Using Fonts
Be smart about using Fonts. Here are about 50 more that you can use Though Prezi’s choice of fonts is very limited, you can add extra fonts through this clever method, though it does require that you edit the CSS file in the Prezi you’re on.
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The current list of extra fonts is as follows - Fonts, and all you need to do is 1. Open the CSS Editor through the template/advanced method and then 2. Click on the ”Use the Prezi CSS Editor” link at the centre - bottom of this screen. 3. Type the name of the available font (from the list above) into the appropriate line in the CSS code, ensuring that you use the exact text (We cut and paste from the list into the CSS code, including the .swf suffix) 4. Then choose “Apply” to make sure that your font changes are saved and applied to this Prezi. 5. Then you can choose to save this template as a personal theme that will appear when you’re online, so you can keep the theme for a future Prezi, and apply it to existing Prezis if you want to.
Using the CSS Editor
Use the CSS Editor to change other elements of personalized themes in Prezi, and save those themes to your online collection. CSS is, basically, a simple HTML editor that you can use to make template changes that are then saved to your themes. The CSS Editor can be accessed via the Theme Wizard. Once you have opened the Theme Wizard, select ‘Advanced’ mode and then click on ‘Use the Prezi CSS Editor’.
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Understanding CSS Editing: how the CSS Editor works and its limitations.
Framing Videos
Get into the habit of putting frames around your videos to stop them playing immediately when you are presenting When actually delivering a presentation, it might be good to first say a word about a video before showing it. You can just put a frame around the video and click the video to play it, but a more professional way, if you want to be able to “pause before playing”, and most speakers do, then you need to: 1. Put an (invisible) frame around the video and link to that first, so the video appears but doesn’t start to play. 2. Then add the video itself to the path, so the presenter just clicks again when she’s ready for the video to play. Then if you… 3. Put the next path point back to the invisible frame you can control the exit from the video too. This also allows the presenter to pause the video and comment if they want to without having to scrabble around for the video controls on the Prezi canvas which can look poor. NB - remember that you’ll need to close the Prezi and re-open it to “zero” all of the videos to the start point after a rehearsal.
Collaborating
Using Prezi.com you are able to share, present and edit with other Prezi account holders, in real time. This means you can work together wherever you are in the world. To collaborate on a Prezi, click to Edit the Prezi you want to work on. When it opens, click on Share and choose Share Prezi. This will then allow you to add
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the people you want to work with – up to 10. Select Editor or Viewer and then Add. This will send them a link, and when they join the Prezi you will see their Avatar appear on the right, as in this image.
People who have editing permission, can also enter the Prezi via their own Prezi library. If you want to present to your co-workers, simply click on Start Presentation. You can also add collaborators from here by clicking + Invite to Edit.
For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/21701884-Co-editing-with-Prezi or here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/23441836
Hyperlinks
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Adding hyperlinks is simple.
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Double click to open a text box, type the full URL link starting with ‘http:// eg. http://Prezi.com. You will see the link underline. When in Present mode, click on the link to activate it. To edit a link, select it and then double-click as when editing text, remembering to activate it in Present mode again. For more detailed online guidance, click here: https://Prezi.zendesk.com/ entries/22391438-hyperlinks
iPad and iPhone app
iPad Prezi for iPad is a great way to view and present your Prezis. You can now also do more with the iPad using the latest app. It doesn’t have all the features available that you have access to on Prezi.com or Windows and Mac, and, although it is still a useful tool, it is very limited when creating a Prezi. Its + New Prezi feature could be used for planning meetings and brainstorming, but we would recommend that you choose to use Prezi.com or Prezi for Windows and Mac when creating a ‘real’ presentation. Using the iPad you can: • Create new Prezis - View and edit your existing Prezis. • Download Prezis to your iPad ready to view off-line. • Add images and photos. • Share your Prezis. • Open hyperlinks. • Hide navigation buttons (really useful if you are presenting from your iPad). • Set your Prezi to autoplay. • View embedded Prezis on an iPad via the Prezi for iPad app (as long as they were embedded after the technology to do this was created).
Remember
Even though you can create a new Prezi on the iPad, you will not be able to create a path for it. To create a path for the Prezi that you have created on your iPad, log onto Prezi.com or use Prezi for Windows and Mac.
At the moment, you can’t add to or edit a path, or add items other than text and images. For more help on using your iPad to present, have a look at our section on presenting With Prezi for iPad and iPhone.
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iPhone Although you can’t create and edit on the iPhone, it is still a useful tool for viewing and presenting. For more detail on using it to present, see our section on presenting With Prezi for iPad and iPhone. So let’s get started: • In the Apple or App Store, search for “Prezi” and download the latest version of Prezi for iPad or Prezi for iPhone app.
• Once you have installed the application, you will need to login to your Prezi Account - so for the first time at least, you’ll need to have an internet connection. • The landing page on an iPad is a library of Prezis that Prezi think work well with an iPad. • Every time you view a Prezi on your iPad or iPhone, it will download it to your device. Your device will store the 10 Prezis that you have viewed most recently.
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• If you want to present a Prezi without an active internet connection, you can. Just make sure that you have recently viewed the Prezi, that way you will be able to display what you have done without being online at that time.
• To login to your account, tap the ‘Login’ button in the top-right corner of your screen. • Fill in your email address and password and then tap ‘Log in’.
• This will take you to your Prezi library. Once you are signed in, the app will display your library of Prezis, from which you can choose to view or edit. Here you will also have the option to create a new Prezi with the + New Prezi button up on the right.
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Creating a new Prezi on an iPad After tapping on New Prezi, select a template. With some of the templates you can add extra frames to the Prezi, allowing you to have a frame within a frame.
Your Prezi screen will look familiar to the set-up on Prezi.com and Prezi for Windows and Mac.
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Adding text To add text, tap on the area as highlighted and type from the keypad that appears. To edit the text, tap on the area again and re-type as you need.
Adding images To add images, tap on the image icon/placeholder and choose from the dropdown options.
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Frame layout Edit frame layout by using the choices shown at the bottom of your Prezi screen. You can experiment and change the layout without losing content.
Path To alter the order of your path-points, tap, hold and drag a frame to the position you want it in the path, using the Path Preview window on the left of your screen.
Saving To save your Prezi, tap on the home button in the top left corner and you will see the two options.
After Saving and closing your Prezi, you will be taken back to your library of Prezis. From there you can click on the Settings wheel and add a Title, Details and choose your Privacy Settings. You can also delete the Prezi from here too.
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Sharing To Share your Prezi, tap on the Share icon and select how you would like to share your Prezi; via email or copying the URL to paste into a document/email.
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Editing an existing Prezi on your iPad To edit an existing Prezi, tap on it to select it from the library screen on your iPad. This will open the Prezi in Present mode. In the top right-hand corner, you will see a small x. Tap on the x and it will close Present mode and leave you in Edit mode. You can then tap on areas you want to edit.
You can also add text and images by tapping on the icons on the right of the screen, as in this image.
To move images and text around, tap and drag them to the position you want.
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chapter 6 Use Prezi with skill So if you want to make the most of your hard-won experience in using this, potentially, brilliant tool, you have to be better than the Prezi norm. You have to bring a structured, rational and business-like approach to your design of Prezis and use of the tool. In the following pages, we’ll look at the fundamentals of creating and using Prezi in the best, most professional way, to help you stand out from your competitive crowd. For each element we’ll show you best practice examples from the ever-expanding Prezi world. The opinions expressed here are all ours. You don’t have to agree with our opinions, but we believe that an opinion helps others to form theirs, and so it is with this in mind that we’ll cover the following: • Using the big picture possibilities of Prezi to make a great impression. • Removing sickness from the Prezi ‘vocabulary’ by reducing spinning, zooming and panning. • Understanding visual structure and layout - stacking and layering. • Using templates to help you hit the ground running.
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chapter 7 Use Prezi’s big picture to make a great first impression The thing we love most about Prezi is the big, blank canvas: a place where you can create simple, visual aids to help you tell your story. The problem with a big, blank canvas is hinted at in the name. It’s big and it’s blank. So there’s a great challenge for non-designers. Two questions they need answering are:
What do I fill it with? A big picture that frames or outlines your subject and acts as a ‘reinforcer’ of your presentation’s ‘big idea’. See our “Six speech structures” download for examples.
How do I use it? As an emphatic tool to help you see the big picture and how it all fits together, and then to zoom in and pan for detail, before zooming out again to allow the audience to ‘see’ how it all fits together
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chapter 8 Choose the right Prezi for the situation Start with the Big Picture
A big picture is an image which is used to structure your presentation – you usually begin looking at it, zoom in to various parts, and return to the big picture frequently to provide context to the points that you’re making. The idea is that it helps your audience to understand how everything you’re saying fits together, gives them an idea of where your presentation is going, and helps to tie all of your points together neatly and in context. The Mathamatweets Prezi is an almost perfect example of using a big picture to create interest, order your thoughts, and structure your presentation. As you go through, you’ll uncover hidden frames, zoom through different multimedia resources, and be brought back to the big picture regularly so you always know where you’re going. Just remember not to rush through too quickly or you will get sea sick! You have plenty of options for which big picture to use, depending on the type of story you’re telling. But there tend to be two big picture types: linear, and organic.
A Linear Prezi
The easiest way to tell a story is to follow a linear path through your three acts – start at A, introduce the dilemma or problem at B, and come to a solution (and final message) at C. For the Prezi novice, this is also an easier framework to create your Prezi within, as it is basically a PowerPoint presentation on Prezi – with flashier visuals, smoother transitions, and more flexibility in your path. With your story in mind, you should be able to find a simple Prezi structure which allows you to structure your speech in a linear fashion. A few examples are mentioned below, but no matter what framework you choose, remember the great thing about Prezi is that you’re not ‘tied in’ to your path – you’re free to (and you should!) frequently zoom out to get a big picture of the journey you’re taking, as well as zooming in to focus on specific points and ideas.
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A roadmap This is a great visual for “this is where we are, this is where we want to be” type Prezis – and can automatically give structure to your design. For example, a step-by-step approach could use the imagery of stepping stones; different choices may be signalled by road signs; or you may simply use the idea of a road to transition from Act 1, your boring, current location expressed by one setting, through Act 2, a journey along a road, to Act 3, your resolution bringing you to a beautiful, happier location.
A zooming map We love the use of maps for a story either providing context to a situation or concentrating on one aspect in a wider landscape – or both! Consider starting with a view of a town or country, giving you the opportunity to talk about your situation in a wider context of your industry, the global economy, etc. You might then zoom in to look at a specific town or village – does this represent your market or company? And finally you can zoom in to one house or person – a specific company, person, department or innovation. Once you’ve detailed that, you can slowly zoom back out to give you the chance to talk about how whatever you’re talking about will relate to the bigger picture.
A timeline No longer only seen in history classrooms, timelines give another simple, universally understood structure for “yesterday, today, tomorrow” type stories. Just take a look at this short presentation on the evolution of Prezi:
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An Organic Prezi
Organic doesn’t mean unstructured (as unstructured means confusion for the audience); it means free flowing movement through your ideas towards your final message. The big picture in an organic Prezi is important for showing how everything you’re talking about is related, which it may not seem to be – though you don’t necessarily need to show it at first, as this award winning Prezi shows.
The infographic approach An infographic is a presentation of a huge amount of data in a creative, aesthetically pleasing way. Of course you shouldn’t present a mass of facts if you expect your audience to remember them all – or just for the sake of showing how well informed you are. But if you want to present a sequence of facts or ideas which, although relevant, aren’t really related, this approach may help your design. Use your path to zoom in on the facts and ideas one by one, slowly building an argument and moving towards your final message. Zooming out frequently will stop your audience getting disoriented, and give a visual for how everything you’re saying will eventually fit together.
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A mind map Brain storm, spider diagram – whatever you call them, they can be a great way of organising your ideas, so why not use one to present? The great thing about mind maps is that they allow you to present the different tangents or ‘arms’ of your argument within the context of your overall aim. Start with the big picture, follow an idea through various stages, and return to the big picture before following another idea or ‘arm’ of the diagram. Take a quick look at this Prezi by Peter Moskovits. It’s a near perfect example of using your visuals to explain your speech. For us, the Prezi doesn’t make much sense – because it’s there to structure and compliment his speech, not replace it. Notice how Peter has used zoomed out views to show the structure of his presentation, as well as zooming and panning for intrigue and detail.
Your big picture can set the mood for your entire presentation. It can sum up your whole message in one simple visual. It can be your grand finale, or the context for structuring everything you say. For inspiration, check out our Big Picture Pinterest board.
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chapter 9 Remove sickness from the Prezi vocabulary There are a few things to understand about using Prezi’s ‘tricks’ well. Essentially Prezi only allows you to do 3 things with content: • Use Layering to create interesting ‘unveiling’ effects. • Zoom in and out for emphasis and expansion of an idea. • Make things appear to help build an argument, progression or an idea. In order to get the best from the tool when presenting we need to be careful when we’re putting things onto the canvas. There are 3 concepts that we need to understand in order to do a great job. We need to pay attention to:
Working with Proximity, Rotation and Zooming
The amount of spinning and zooming in your Prezi depends on how you arrange and align your path elements on the canvas, because Prezi looks at your path and decides for itself, the best way to move (‘transition’) from pathpoint to path-point. So if your next path-point is a long way from the previous one, Prezi has to zoom quickly and directly between the 2 points, which can mean a very distracting and disorienting journey for the viewer. Pay attention to the following three issues when arranging assets on your canvas and joining them with the path tool. Be aware of:
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Proximity The closer things are to the previous path point, the smoother the transition will be.
Rotation Be wary of greater than 60 degree rotations from path-point to path-point and use 180-360 rotations very carefully, for deliberate reasons; for example, to zoom out to your ‘big picture’ in order to move to the next act or major part of your story.
Scale and zoom Zooming in deeply and zooming out strongly can be very effective ways of emphasising a key point (zooming in), and giving context (zooming out), but don’t combine a big zoom with a long, lateral transition, or a greater than 60 degree rotation, or the audience will be at best confused, or at worst, sick. Here’s a really good example of how to use Prezi’s panning and zooming to best effect - from Prezi’s excellent collection of ‘how-to’ videos, available free from Prezi.com.
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chapter 10 Understand visual structure and layout One of the next hardest things to do as we build real, high-end Prezi skills, is to understand how we can best arrange all of our assets on the canvas and then build the path through our Prezi to make the most of the strengths (layering, zooming, the large canvas etc.) and minimise the weaknesses (excessive zooming, spinning and lateral motion). There are a few simple rules that we can follow as a start and these include: • Understanding basic ‘framing and layout’ principles. • Remembering to zoom in and out vertically before panning across. • Using the screen ratio tool to make sure that what you see in a frame is what you see on the screen when presenting. • Using simple layout ‘grid thinking’ for every frame you show, so that there’s a professional and coherent visual structure to every path point view in your presentation. • Linking your visual structure to your story structure and have ‘chunks’ of your Prezi for each part - Prologue, Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Epilogue - and consider the layering of the ‘chunks’ to allow you to develop an ‘In-Out’ or an ‘Out-In’ structure to help you tell that story. Here’s that same Prezi (‘A Prezi Team’) again. It shows how you can use simple visual structure to help you tell your story. Notice how we use the ‘chunks’ of the story as stages of our Prezi path.
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Starting off with the ‘Prologue ‘chunk’ zoomed in to grab the audience’s attention.
Then zooming out to tell the main ‘3 acts of the story’ ;
and moving between the 3 acts with short, lateral transitions, after showing the audience the ‘big picture’ to make sure they see the point.
Then Zooming out for the last time to emphasise the real value of Prezi (and our services) which is to help the viewer stand out every time they stand up to speak.
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This ‘stacking and layering’ of content chunks is one of Prezi’s most important, and little known strengths. Most important because it allows you to move away from the ‘linear’ nature of PowerPoint when using Prezi. Little known, only because Prezi has been around for such a short time, and we’re still creating the ‘rules’, aren’t we?
‘In-Out’ or ‘Out-In’ stacking strategy
In our publication ‘6 Speech Structures’ we show you how to use classic story structure to write your speech. In short there should be the 3‘Acts’that audiences expect in any well written story: three acts, and an attention grabbing first 30 seconds, then a confident, concise closing 30 seconds, represented graphically as follows:
If you follow a similar structure in creating your presentations, you’ll find that you have 5 ‘chunks’ of content that you can create as 5 distinct parts of your Prezi visuals. Each chunk will have a path of its own (though, obviously, the path is continuous). To make the most of Prezi’s abilities, you can then arrange your content using scaling, layering and animation, to help you tell the story in a visually interesting way, while avoiding excessive zooming, panning and lateral transitions.
Here’s how
NB. In each of the examples below, the Red element is where you would start the presentation; Blue is the 3-act story structure; and Green is the rousing end of the presentation.
An ‘in-out-out’ approach Start zoomed in for the prologue; Zoom out for the 3 acts of the story; Zoom out again showing the whole story in the context of what you want them to do.
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An ‘out-in-out’ approach Start zoomed half-way in for the prologue; Zoom in for the 3 acts of the story; Zoom out all the way for the epilogue, showing the whole story in the context of what you want them to do.
An ‘out-out-in’ approach Start zoomed out for the prologue; Zoom out again for the 3 acts of the story; Zoom in all the way for the hardhitting epilogue.
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Step-by-step to stacking and layering
Write your story.
Create a Prezi storyboard in Prezi.
Lay the ‘chunks’ out on the canvas in linear style.
Let the story tell you the visual layout and identity.
Create a linear path, add your animations, sounds, videos etc.
Put all of your content in frames.
Decide on the ‘in-out-in’ method you want to use.
Resize the frames, still in linear form.
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Stack the frames and adjust the scaling to make sure that the visual effect works.
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chapter 11 Use templates to hit the ground running Many of the challenges we face can be solved by developing your own, trusted templates with the right fonts, colours, frames, layouts and paths already made, so all you need to do is fill the empty spaces with your content and edit the formatting, alignment and sizing before you present. You can use Prezi’s bank of templates and’tweak’ them with different fonts, colour schemes, backgrounds and lines, and then save them as your own template for use again and again.
This is probably a good place for you to start if you don’t have the budget to go further. But the Prezi templates don’t really use stacking and layering as we’ve discussed here. They go for the easy method of an eye-catching background and a linear progression. Pretty basic, but pretty good too.
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Prezi has made a lot of movement in the right direction over the last 2 years, adding tens of new templates to the choices on offer to the new user. They’ve even used some of our thinking on 6 Presentation Structures. But Prezi’s templates are still: • Visually clichéd already and well on the way to becoming like Microsoft clipart in the 1990s. • More ‘arty’ than practical for serious business users. • Reliant on circular frames - which is simply mad because it wastes 50% of the screen on a 16x6 or 4x3 monitor when presented. And they’ll become even more clichéd as this year progresses and Prezi moves towards 20 million users.
3 reasons to use templates
1. They’ll save you time - because all of the time-consuming ‘background work’, like creating layouts, paths, transitions, and scaling and zooming, will be done for you. All you have to do is add your content to the empty frames. 2. They’ll save you money - because if you’re a professional, your hourly rate is probably well above $100 an hour. It’ll take you at least 3 hours to do all of that thinking and planning to layout your Prezi. And if a template costs you $15.00… 3. If you can create your own, they’ll help you stand out - they’ll be uniquely suited to you, your organisation and your brand. They won’t be the ones that everyone is using.
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chapter 12 Presenting with Prezi - you choose how So you’ve made your fabulous Prezi presentation and you’re ready to tell your story. You have lots of options to help you make the best impression you can. You can choose to present: • With or without a path • Remotely or face-to-face • Online or offline • Present using your PC or laptop •
iPad or iPhone screen
• With your iPhone, iPad, smartphone or tablet, ‘connected’ via a cable to your screen or projector • With your iPhone, iPad, smartphone or tablet, ‘wirelessly’ via ‘Apple TV’ • Using a portable Prezi • Manually (you drive the changes) or on autoplay (views change every X seconds) You have so many choices, it can be hard to understand them and make the right choices for you. In this chapter we’ll look at each of the choices in some detail, and we’ll give our recommendation based on our extensive experience of doing all of these things over the past 4 years.
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With or without a path
Before we get to the detail of all of the different ways that you can present with Prezi let’s look at two different approaches - one a traditional linear approach; and the second a cool, organic approach.
Presenting with a path In Prezi, of course, you put text, pictures and video and other ‘assets’ on your canvas, and you then join them together with a path. If you create a path, you press ‘present’ and Prezi takes you to the view defined at Path Point 1 and you move through the presentation in linear in form, to the last path point. Job done. Using a path is predictable, easy to do and probably the safest bet for most presenters who use Prezi.
Presenting without a path Once you’ve got all of your stuff on the canvas, you don’t have to create a path to help you present. You can click the ‘Present’ button and you’ll see that Prezi shows everything that you have on your canvas at once. What you can then do is just click on each asset in turn and Prezi will zoom into that thing (be it picture, video clip, text) and you can talk around it as your presentation.
When you want to move onto the next thing you can just zoom out to the whole canvas view and start all over again.
It works slightly differently on iPad, and iPhone apps, but the principle is the same. It’s a really flexible way of doing things, but it requires: • Planning as you create the Prezi and laying things out on the canvas to make them easy to see and click on. • Practice - because manipulating, mouse, arrows and canvas as you’re speaking to a live audience, is a tough thing to do.
Our recommendation - do both. • Always create a path because that allows you to be precise in where you navigate to, and it allows you to animate the contents of frames to help you use one of Prezi’s most important features. Remember you can’t animate frame contents unless the frame is in the path. • When you start to present, you can ‘step off’ the path at any time by clicking onto another asset, and Prezi ‘leaps’ to that path point and allows you to continue from there.
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• Anytime you want to ‘step back onto the path’, you just click forward (keyboard arrows, remote control or on-screen arrows) and it takes you forward (or back) to the next path point from the place you are at.
Remotely or faceto-face
Presenting face to face Let’s imagine that you want to make a presentation to a room full of people, face to face. You could use any of the following online or offline options:
Online Options
Offline Options
PC or laptop connected to the internet
PC or laptop using Prezi for Mac or
and a projector or TV
Windows connected to a projector or TV iPhone or iPad via the app & iPad iPhone connected to a projector or TV - via wireless link or by cable Standalone Prezi exported through Prezi running on a PC or laptop that doesn’t have Prezi installed
Presenting remotely You can also present remotely with your audiences in another location completely, via Prezi.com over the web, in a number of different ways:
Online remotely shared with invited
Via Prezi.com
individuals who are Prezi account holders Online remotely shared with invited
Via Prezi.com
individuals who are not Prezi account holders Desktop sharing using all kinds of webex
Google Hangout, Webex, etc.
& web-based conferencing platforms
Online or Offline
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With Prezi you can present using the online tool at Prezi.com, and that’s the easiest option – but only if you have a strong internet connection. If you don’t have that strong connection, your presentation will tend to be shaky and difficult to watch, and all of your images and videos will not work as well as you would like.
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For important presentations we always use one of the ‘offline’ presentation tools that Prezi offer, because internet connections can vary enormously from place to place.
Using video for offline presentations To do this, insert a video file into Prezi, rather than a link. Click on Insert and choose ‘From file (PDF, Video)’. Select your video file from your computer and insert it. This has now loaded a video directly into your Prezi that doesn’t rely on an internet connection, and so can be played offline. You can carry this out from Prezi for Windows and Mac, or Prezi.com, although it will take longer to load the video using Prezi.com. Video files are large and have implications for the smooth running of your Prezi. A large video file can put extra stress on your computer’s processor, video card and so the projector too. A good way to solve this problem is to convert the video file to a flash video file(.flv). This can be done using free online software such as Convertfiles.com. This process can reduce the size of a video file by a third and prevent your Prezi from becoming shaky or putting a strain on your hardware.
Our recommendation - present offline for really important pitches: • It’s more reliable. • Remember our advice for using video for an offline Prezi presentation. • Use the Prezi for Mac and Windows tool because it works pretty well and is really reliable.
From a PC or laptop
Using the online tool at Prezi.com Connect your projector to your computer. But BEFORE you do: Make sure that you are not in Present mode when you connect the projector. Connecting the projector will probably change your resolution and so your Prezi may not fit properly into your projected screen. It’s usually best to resize browser windows to ‘small’ before plugging in a projector, as the resolution change might make it hard to resize your browser window later. 1. The default setting for most computers will be to “mirror” your computer screen onto the projector. This means that whatever is displayed on your computer screen will be exactly the same on the projector screen. If, for some reason, this is not the setting on your computer, you can change it quite easily. Mac Users can go to ‘System Settings > Display’ and Window Users can find their settings under ‘Control Panel > Display > Display Settings’.
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2. Click the ‘Present’ button in the top-left corner of the screen while in Edit Mode to start presenting your Prezi on your connected projector. 3. You will (annoyingly and always) see a message like the one below telling you that Prezi is now full screen. Click ‘Allow’ before you start to present your Prezi. If you don’t, you will not be able to go through your Prezi’s path.
Users with a MacBook Pro with Retina display will often not see the above message clearly when trying to present from Safari. You will most likely see a message like the one below. This does not allow you to click on the ‘Allow’ button because you are not able to see it. In this case, just accept that you can’t do it and present your Prezi from another browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. Note that Prezi changes so frequently that it’s a good idea to have 3 browsers installed on you PC at any one time, just in case, as has often happened to us, Prezi won’t work properly on a particular browser, on a particular day.
Remember your Aspect Ratios Most laptops and Plasma TV’s are 16x9 wide screen, but most projectors use the 4:3 aspect ratio. This causes problems for Prezi users as we explained earlier in the book. Get your frames, views and images in the right aspect ratio before you start to present. See our section on Creating the right size and shape frame.
Using the offline tool Prezi for Windows or Mac Note that the Offline tools Prezi for Mac and Windows are available in two forms. Free with limited options and fully specified only as a part of the ‘PRO’ licensing option, though there are discounts available for students. See our section Sign up to Prezi.
Why Present Offline when it really matters? For important presentations we would always tend to use Prezi’s offline apps and programmes to make the presentation, because then you know the limitations of your equipment when you’re presenting sometimes image and video ‘heavy’ presentations. We’ve seen lots of presenters thrown off balance when the wireless link lagged behind their speech, and the more video, high resolution images and graphics you have in your Prezi, the more demanding it will be for the system. The safest option for any presenter is to have all of the content on their own system, © Jim Harvey 2014
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not trusting the wireless network will be able to stream content in real-time, because the further away you get from the major cities, the worse the internet, DSL and broadband speed gets.
Download your app from http://Prezi.com/windows/ When you’ve downloaded Prezi for Windows/Mac You’ll see the Icon on your desktop (Windows) or in the Applications folder (Mac) - though you can drag the icon from there and onto your ‘Launchpad’ ribbon if you’d rather. 1. Double click on the Prezi icon to enter the programme and the first time you do it, you’ll be asked to login to your account to validate the install and allow Prezi to see your Prezi Library. Log in to Prezi.com and you’ll see this screen (below) as Prezi checks online to update to the latest Prezis it finds there.
2. Choose to Download New Prezis. Now as you hover your mouse pointer over the desktop, Prezi gives you the option to download any new Prezis it finds there. (New Prezis that are in your online Prezi library, but not on your Laptop or PC will appear ‘greyed out’.)
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3. Click on the Prezi to open it in your desktop app and Prezi will open it automatically in ‘Present’ mode. Press escape or spacebar to come out of the present mode and into the editing window.
4. Then Prezi for Mac and windows works in pretty much the same way as the online app when it comes to editing or presenting a Prezi.
To present just click the usual ‘Spacebar’ or ‘Present’ button in the top lefthand corner of the desktop and away you go. Anytime you want to escape the presentation mode just click ‘Esc’ key or ‘Spacebar’ again and you’ll toggle back to the editing screen. Simple!
Our recommendation - Use offline for really important presentations and online for collaboration and remote presentations. • Only use the online tool for those big presentations if you’re 100% sure that the connection is good enough to allow your PC and your presentation (with all of its links, videos, transitions and images) to run smoothly. • Always create your Prezi presentations with the aspect ratio of the output device in mind. Then create frames, images, text blocks and layouts to best-fit that aspect ratio.
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• Use frames in the path rather than images because it’s easier to define the views when you know each of the frames is a perfect fit with the aspect ratio of your projector or TV. • Use the path preview window to accurately layout each path view so you know that if you’ve set everything up to a widescreen 16x9 display, each of your beautiful frames, images and layouts will show with no ugly bleeds or overlaps from adjacent images.
Once your presentations have synchronised between online account and your iPhone/iPad, all you have to do, is connect to a projection device and start to present.
With Prezi for iPad and iPhone
Presenting from your iPad • Open the Prezi app from your desktop by double tapping on the Icon. • You’ll then get this screen
• Next tap on a Prezi that you want to view or edit. • It will automatically open that Prezi in ‘Present’ Mode.
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• If at any time you want to exit presentation mode just tap the little white ‘x’ at the top of the screen and you’ll got to the desktop window.
• After you’ve exited your Prezi’s present mode, you can re-start your presentation by tapping the ‘Present’ icon in the top-right corner of your iPad screen at anytime.
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When you are presenting in Present mode • You can then move around your Prezis using the commands below. Or you can tap the sides of your ipad screen to move back and forth along your Prezi’s path. • If you want to move right to the end of your path, or back to the start, then you can just tap and hold at the left edge (to go back to the start) or right edge (to go right to the end).
• To exit Present Mode and go back to editing your Prezi, tap the small X icon that appears in the top-right corner.
Our recommendation - We really like presenting with the iPhone and iPad apps but there are a few things to remember: • When you’re presenting with a cable connection you need to be careful not to dislodge it as you move and speak. • You need to practice with the iPad and the iPhone because the manual control – learning where and when and how to tap, pinch, slide and tap and hold - of the presentation mode can be a little hard to master. But when you do it’s second nature.
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• Switch on the autorotation lock – to make sure that when you turn the iPad or iPhone the screen stays locked in place.
Presenting from your iPhone The clever little iPhone app for Prezi works in pretty much the same way as for the iPad described above. The major difference is that the iPhone app only downloads and plays your Prezis. You can’t do any editing, creating or sharing. But never mind that. It’s a great little tool to have in your pocket, and it looks amazing when you’re driving a Prezi wirelessly in a conference hall with a phone. Even cynics are impressed.
So to use the iPhone app: • Open the iPhone Prezi app from your desktop by double tapping on the Icon. • The first time you do this after installation it will ask for your Prezi account details (so you need to have an internet connection in order to log in - so make sure you do this step when you know you’ll have a signal, otherwise you won’t be able to use the app - which could be embarrassing! • When you’ve logged in successfully, you’ll get this screen which shows you the last 10 Prezi presentations that it finds in your Prezi account library online. • Then just tap the Prezi you want to play and it will open automatically in ‘Present’ mode at the first path point in your presentation. Then the Prezi works in present mode just like the iPad controls.
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Connect your iPad & iPhone to a projector or TV
Connecting with a cable It’s as easy as 1-2-3 to connect your iOS device to a projector or TV. 1. Find out which cables you need to go out from your IPad or iPhone and in to your projection device (TV, projector, VGA monitor etc. 2. Buy the right cables. Amazon.com is great and so simple. 3. Connect the cables.
Remember
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Connecting an iPad or iPhone to a screen, either wirelessly or via a cable, will remove the left and right arrows and the X icon that appear when you tap on the left and right hand sides of your device screen when in Present Mode.
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Here’s a quick guide to help you identify the right cables for your iPad and iPhone, whatever the model.
iOS Device
iOS device out
Projector/TV in
iPhone 4 and before
Apple 30-pin to VGA Adapter - original iPhone to VGA projector
VGA Cable
Apple 30-pin to HDMI Adapter - original iPhone to HDMI projector or TV
HDMI Cable
Apple lightning (small) to VGA Adapter original iPad to VGA projector
VGA Cable
Apple lightning (small) to HDMI Adapter
HDMI Cable
Apple 30-pin to VGA Adapter - original iPad to VGA projector
VGA Cable
Apple 30-pin to HDMI Adapter
HDMI Cable
Lightning to VGA Adapter - iPad3 onwards
VGA Cable
Lightning Digital AV Adapter - Apple Store for connecting iPad 3 onwards to HDMI cable for TVs & projectors
HDMI Cable
iPhone 5 and after
iPad 3 and before
iPad 4, mini, air and onwards
Connecting wirelessly With an Apple TV and an iPhone 4S/5/5S/5C or an iPad (not 1st generation) running iOS 6 or 7, you can wirelessly stream your Prezi from your iPhone or iPad to a TV screen or projector through a wireless internet connection. © Jim Harvey 2014
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It’s worth going through the extra expense and arrangements to do this because it allows you (whatever presentation software you’re using) to move freely around the room and have absolute mastery of your visuals. But with Prezi it gives you that added extra bonus of being able to use the interactivity of the screen and the flexibility of Prezi to greatest effect. Here’s a blog post from Jim Harvey on the advantages of going ‘wireless’ to Prezi Presenters.
This effectively turns your iPhone or iPad into an advanced remote control device. The instructions below are based on an iPhone 5, but they will work for an iPhone 4S, or a 2nd/3rd generation iPad.
Step-by-step guide to connecting your iPhone or iPad wirelessly to a TV screen or projector using iOS 7 • Make sure your Apple TV is compatible with your TV or projector. For help, follow Apple’s guide to setting up your Apple TV. • Once your Apple TV is connected to the screen or projector, make sure that your iPhone/iPad is connected to the same wireless network as your Apple TV. • Check Airplay is enabled for both your Apple TV and your iPhone/iPad. For help on this, you can visit this page. • Double tap the home button on your iPhone/iPad.
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• Swipe right until you see the Airplay icon next to the volume control.
• Tap the Airplay icon. • From the menu that appears, tap on your Apple TV to activate Airplay. A check icon will appear next to your device name. Flick the Mirroring switch to ‘ON’.
• Everything on your iPhone/iPad screen should now be mirrored on your TV/Projector screen. • Select ‘Done’ and then open Prezi for iPhone/iPad • Select the Prezi that you want to stream. (Log in to your account if you have not already.) • You should now be streaming your Prezi to your TV/projector.
Remember
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Prezi for iPad/iPhone will automatically lock your device’s screen to landscape mode whenever you connect to any secondary screen.
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Step-by-step guide to connecting your iPad wirelessly if you’re not using iOS 7 1. Connect your iOS device and your Apple TV to the same Wi-Fi network. 2. On your iOS device, double-click the Home button to display your recently used apps. 3.
Swipe the recently used apps twice from left to right until you see the AirPlay icon. If you don’t see the AirPlay icon on your iOS device, your iOS device and Apple TV may not be on the same network. Get help troubleshooting, if necessary.
4. Tap the AirPlay icon to display a list of available AirPlay devices. 5. To use AirPlay Mirroring, select the name of your Apple TV and turn Mirroring On.
Our recommendation - use the safest method for you - but wireless with an iPhone or iPad works and looks great The wired connections from both iPhones and iPads to the projector or TV can be a bit ‘clunky’. The cable tends to get snagged and can pull out which is embarrassing. Particularly with the older, wider connectors, the cables are all quite heavy duty and not really long enough to allow you to move around enough to warrant using the cable instead of a laptop or PC.
What can you do if you have an Android phone or tablet?
It seems that Prezi is most interested in the Apple community. That’s understandable but frustrating for the millions of android users. Prezi is promising an Android app for phones and tablets, but as usual, won’t say when, so don’t hold your breath. Here’s a link to the Android debate and workaround on Prezi.com if you’re interested in finding out about how you can fill the gap yourself.
Present with a remote control device (clicker)
When you present live on stage, moving along your Prezi’s path with a remote control (clicker) is by far the best way to go. It allows you to be free from the podium and navigating through a Prezi with many path points by having to use the mouse or the arrow keys, which just looks bad.
What you need to know when it comes to remote controls Most remote clickers will work with Prezi as soon as you take them out of the box. We haven’t yet found, in all of the places we’ve presented, all over the world, a remote that didn’t work - though there are a few points here that you should note.
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Always ensure: • You have Flash 11.3 or a higher version installed, select Present mode and then click the “Allow” button on the Flash pop-up that appears at the top of the screen. • Your Prezi needs to have a predefined path in order to work with a remote clicker. • Make sure you have the latest version of Flash Player installed. Remote clickers will work with Prezi in Present mode if your version of Flash is 11.3 or higher. You can get the latest version of Flash Player here. • Remember to click the ‘Allow’ button at the top of the screen, once you enter Present mode. • If you have an Apple Remote you will need to reconfigure the buttons.
Things to bear in mind In most cases, your Prezi’s path can be advanced by clicking ‘LEFT’ and ‘RIGHT’ on your remote. You can zoom in using the UP and DOWN keys. If your remote is reconfigurable, we recommend you set it up in this way for optimal performance: • Next path step: RIGHT key • Previous path step: LEFT key • Zoom in: UP key • Zoom out: DOWN key Adding the keyboard shortcut ctrl+SPACE (alt+command+SPACE on a Mac) to your remote clicker, so that you can zoom out and display an overview of everything, can be a useful addition if your remote clicker enables custom keys.
Download and present a portable Prezi
What is a portable Prezi? A portable Prezi is an exported or downloaded version of your Prezi, which works without internet access or a Prezi account. You can use it to present in situations where you don’t have access to the Internet, or to send to conference organizers before you present. It contains a non-editable version of your Prezi, as well as software that will play your Prezi on both Windows and Mac PCs. A portable Prezi is entirely self-contained and requires no installation, at the same time it doesn’t install anything onto your computer and so you don’t have to worry about security.
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Here’s a Prezi video to show how you can download a portable Prezi: When you download a Portable Prezi, you can: 1. Present without an internet connection on a Mac or PC. 2. Burn your Prezi onto a CD or DVD. 3. Distribute your Prezi to people so that they can view it but not edit it in any way. Please note that a portable Prezi cannot be edited. If you need to make changes, edit your Prezi on Prezi.com or with Prezi for Windows/Mac, and download/ export again. Embedded YouTube videos can only be played when you have an active Internet connection. A portable Prezi is different from a PEZ file created by Prezi for Windows / Mac. The minimum required version of OSX for Mac users wanting to open a portable Prezi is 10.6. For Windows users, the minimum requirement is Windows XP.
How to create a portable Prezi • Go to your Prezi library. • Click on the Prezi you want to make into a portable Prezi. • Select ‘Download’ from the choices along the bottom of the screen.
• Choose the presenting tab and then click on ‘Download’.
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• Then, depending on the speed of your computer and internet connection, you will have to wait a few moments.
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• You will then get a message confirming that your Prezi is about to download to your computer. If this doesn’t happen, you can click the ‘Restart the download’ link.
• Your portable Prezi will be saved in a zip file onto your hard drive. Windows users please note that if you save a portable Prezi and the filename is too long, it may not open. This is due to the way Windows works and is not due to your portable Prezi. • Don’t use a long filename or save in a location which involves a lot of subfolders (as these increase the length of the filename). If you see an error message saying “path too long” or similar, then try saving your portable Prezi again with a shorter filename and maybe from your desktop (to shorten the folder trail). • Unzip, and start Prezi.exe (PC) or the Prezi file (Mac) to load your portable Prezi. • Similarly, you can attach the zip file to an email and send it wherever you want it to go. • Make sure not to remove any files from the zip folder as this will most likely result in the portable Prezi not working correctly.
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You can download a portable version of your Prezi directly from within the editor. • Click on the ‘Share’ button from the top menu. • Select ‘Download as portable Prezi’.
• Follow the steps on the dropdown menu.
.PEZ files A .pez file is one that is saved to a folder on your computer and can be used to view and edit a Prezi if you have Prezi for Windows and Mac. It’s also an alternative way to share your Prezi by sending the file as you would any other. Do remember that the recipient will need to have Prezi for Windows and Mac to open the file.
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Once the file has been opened in Prezi for Windows and Mac it can be synchronised with Prezi.com. You can do this from the home screen by hovering over the Prezi and selecting from the options as in the image above.
Click through manually or use the autoplay feature
When you’re presenting your Prezi, you can set it to play automatically with Prezi’s Autoplay feature. You can control the speed your Prezi plays at by setting the time interval between path steps. The Autoplay feature will automatically put your Prezi on a loop so your audience can see it all over again until the end of time - or until you decide to unplug the monitor! We can’t think of a reason why you’d want to autoplay your Prezi in front of a live audience to whom you were talking, but as a stand-alone, display option at a conference or on a stand, it works really well.
Step-by-step guide to auto-playing and looping your Prezi
1. Create a Path in your Prezi. 2. Enter Present mode. 3. Click the clock icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen. Select the desired time interval between path steps and then sit back and watch as your Prezi starts playing. 4. To stop your Prezi from auto-playing, select the clock icon again and click ‘Off’. Alternatively, you can click either the next or previous arrows at the bottom of your screen to disable autoplay. The same effect can be achieved by tapping either the LEFT or RIGHT arrow keys on your keyboard. The same steps can be taken to autoplay an embedded Prezi.
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Autoplay your Prezi on your iPhone or iPad To use this feature, your Prezi will need to have a set path. If you want to display your Prezi on your iPhone or iPad without having to tap the next arrows, you can really easily by following these simple steps. Using the Prezi for the iPhone and or IPad app, you can present without even having to touch your screen. Though again, why you would want to is beyond us.
Step-by-step guide to activating the Autoplay feature • Go to ‘Settings’. • Scroll down until you find ‘Prezi’. • You will then see a screen that allows you to set your Prezi to autoplay.
• From here you can enable Autoplay by flicking the switch to ‘ON’. Flick it back to ‘OFF’ at any time to disable Autoplay.
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• Tap next to ‘Play Each Step For’ to set the interval between each path step.
• When you are happy with the interval that you have set, tap ‘Prezi’ to return to the previous screen. • There is also an option to set your Prezis to loop. Again, flick the switch to either ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ to enable or disable this feature. • Now simply open any Prezi from your Prezi library and it will automatically start moving through its path steps. • Tap the X in the top-right corner to stop the Prezi from playing and to return to your Prezi library.
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chapter 13 Preparing for your presentation The questions you asked before you began to prepare your presentation will mean that much of your preparation is complete; consider the following questions to ensure that everyone will be able to benefit from your brilliant Prezi.
Room Size
How big is the room? The most important thing to consider here is your text size. Unlike PowerPoint, you can’t set your text size in pixels, so you need to consider the comparative size of the text in the context of the frame as a whole. Obviously, you can’t think about this until you have set your path. Think about the other aspects of your presentation too – keep images large and simple so that everyone can see and appreciate them. It’s worth scoping out the room as early as possible so that you consider other problems you might have – will anything cause glare on the screen, or will the view of the screen be obstructed from any seats? Forewarned is forearmed when it comes to delivering a stress free presentation.
Screen/Monitor
What are the screen resolutions? Whereas PowerPoint is able to adjust its size to the screen it is being shown on, what you can see on each frame of a Prezi is dependent of the size of the screen you are using. So if you prepare your Prezi on a screen with one size ratio, and present it on another, you will either see frames blending together, or have parts of your frame cut out. Find out the aspect ratio of the screen you will be presenting on, then use this handy tool to view your Prezi as it will be shown
Will you be ‘wired for sound’? If you have added video or sound, check that the presentation venue can hook you up to the audio system. If you’ve embedded YouTube videos or the like, remember that you will need to be connected to the internet for them to work
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Notes
What notes do you need? The notes you will need for your speech will depend upon your presentation style and the speech you’re giving. If it’s a high pressure situation, you might decide you need a full script to rely on. Otherwise, we advise you use prompters in terms of key-words or the beginnings of sentences for each section of the speech.
Preparation
We have found that rehearsing your speech aloud helps you to be the most natural and fluid when your performance time comes. If you’re completely up to scratch with the points you want to cover and your key messages, you will deal much better with tangents, questions, and distractions. Once you’ve done all of the leg work of creating a great speech and stunning visuals to back it up, it’s worth paying thought to how you’re going to act on the day to back up your speech and make sure you’re seen as the confident, competent presenter you need to be. For practical tips see our section on Starting Brilliantly. If you’re still not sure how to handle the initial shock of having all eyes on you, concentrate on sharpening your prologue – let that do the work for you!
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chapter 14 During your presentation The best Prezi presenters picture it as a completely different tool to linear, slide based tools like PowerPoint. When you’re preparing and presenting, think of Prezi as a big whiteboard where you can display all of the information you need, order, group, and structure your thoughts, and move around freely.
Embrace Tangents
You’re not constrained to a linear path – it’s great to pop back to previous ideas you’ve explored, and use zooming and panning to move between ideas. When you’re presenting, it’s easy to move away from the path you’ve set out for your presentation – and return to where you left off at any time. Using the control panel on the right of the screen (it won’t appear until you move your mouse to it) you can zoom in or out from where you are, or zoom right out until you can see everything. And of course, you can pan around the canvas as you do when you’re in creative mode. Click anywhere there’s a frame, and Prezi will zoom you to it. Then, click for the next slide and Prezi will resume your presentaton from wherever you are in the path.
All Eyes on You
Be Aware
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There will be times when anything you put on the screen will be distracting; or when you want to ditch the Prezi altogether and go naked (affiliate link). To get all eyes on you, make the Prezi screen go black by pressing ‘b’ on your keyboard at any time – then pressing any key to bring it back.
As with the creation stage, awareness throughout the presentation is what separates good from bad. Audience expressions provide instant insight into what they think of you, the points you’re making, and the presentation as a whole. If you notice disinterest or displeasure when you begin, this might be a sign that before you get into your speech, you need to take some time to speak directly to your audience and ‘butter them up’; if they don’t know why you’re there, explain. Try to lighten the mood, and most of all spend a few moments letting your personality shine and getting them to like you.
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During your speech, look out for hints that you’re confusing people, or they’re not buying what you’re saying; it’s better to deal with these problems immediately than plough on regardless. Make the most of your ability to go back to key parts of your presentation, and if you know your points well enough you should find it easy to rephrase and repeat them to better explain or persuade. Look out for hints that you’re boring people and losing their attention. The best way to deal with this is to skip ahead to a part which is more interesting – the bravest presenters will abandon the script and Prezi altogether and improvise. If you can’t do that, apologise for the detail but explain it’s necessary and tell them how much longer you’ll be there for. Most importantly, take this as a learning opportunity. After the presentation, ask audience members who you trust to explain to you what made the presentation boring, and invest more time in your next presentation: cutting down your key points to make it simpler, and using more interesting visuals to keep your audience engaged.
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chapter 15 Is Powerpoint dead? If you’re a regular reader of the blog (click here to sign up for presentation skills advice), you’ll have seen us being pretty balanced about Prezi as a presentation tool. As with PowerPoint, Prezi can neither make nor ruin a presentation. A good presentation with a good PowerPoint will be a great thing to watch – much better than a good presentation with a rubbish Prezi. So for certain situations – the meeting you only have an hour to prepare for, or when visuals are really unimportant for your speech to be successful, PowerPoint is still king; you know it, you can use it to create a quick presentation, and there’s no need to worry that something will go wrong when you come to present it. But if you want to present with flair, make sure your audience pays attention, and make your speech into an experience they will remember, Prezi is your best friend. For teachers who need a bit of ‘wow’ factor to make their students take notice; those with an important message that can so easily be ignored and disregarded; the leader who’s trying to inspire; anyone who’s ever going to stand up in front of a room full of people who don’t know/like/care about them and ask them to listen, it’s worth having the skills to create a mind-blowing Prezi – for those times when it is exactly what you need.
Prezi’s Best Features
As you get to grips with Prezi, you will find your own favourite features, but here are three of the tools which make Prezi stand out as one of the best presentation tools for us:
It allows you to create an organic presentation. You aren’t constrained in any way (e.g. by linear slides) in the structure you use – it’s like moving from a newspaper to a whiteboard. See Choose the RIght Prezi for the Situation for more details.
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at any part of the presentation, then resume it from where you left off. We explain how our section on With or without a path..
It gives a sense of journey, excitement, and flair. The ability to have a ‘big picture’ which structures the presentation, great animations for moving through it, and seamless transitions to videos, animations or sounds, allows you to build excitement, intrigue, and sophistication.
Prezi vs. Powerpoint: A Summary
As you already know, we like both PowerPoint and Prezi as presentation tools. The table below shows how they match up point for point. It gives you an idea of how we choose whether to use PowerPoint or Prezi for each.
Powerpoint
Prezi
Ease of use Cost Business use / ubiquity Flexibility Animations Overall presentation tool
What does Prezi do for a Poor Speech?
Adorable isn’t it, that picture of the pig in the hat. But if we’re honest, it’s still a pig. Most of us wouldn’t let it sleep in our bed or eat from our dinner plate, no matter how cute it looks. The same goes for presentations – you can dress a poor speech up as much as you like with fancy visuals and whatever else, but nothing will disguise the fact that it is a poor speech. Drafting a decent speech with no pictures and delivering it competently, will always be much better received than a poor speech, with great visuals. Prezi is great in skilled hands working to a tight brief, it also has that ‘wow’ factor if used well. But look at the Prezi sample page and see how badly most of these ‘super samples’ would work in support of the spoken word.
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We are giving an overview of crafting a speech to match the stunning visuals Prezi can help you to create, but never think that investing time in your Prezi can be a substitute for time spent working on your speech. If you find writing a good speech twice as difficult as creating good visuals, you should spend twice as long working and reworking the story you’re going to tell, if not more. Your speech only needs to lack one of the 3 F’s - Fit, Focus & Flair - to be quickly filed in the “yawn” section of your audience’s memory.
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chapter 16 The Fit, Focus & Flair Model Our Fit, Focus and Flair model is the foundation of everything we teach professionals, from young graduates to CEOs of FTSE 100 companies who need support to become dynamic, charismatic presenters. Start by honestly ranking yourself on the table below and then take some time to understand and work on your Fit, Focus and Flair whenever you’re preparing a presentation.
Fit
Focus
yes
yes
yes
yes
Flair
yes
no
Strengths
Development Needs
You tend to give relevant, short and memorable
You’ll tend to specialise in extra formal, informal, large
presentations. Your skill is bolstered by hard work and
groups or intimate small groups. Broaden your skills by
you understnad the link between preparation and
taking on more of the kinds of speeches and audiences
performance.
you find difficult.
You tend to give relevant, short and factual presentations that could be made more interesting and memorable for
Build on the great basics you have by adding flair.
your audience.
yes
no
no
You tend to give relevant presentations, that are longer than they need be and could be made more interesting
Work on the discipline of focus, then add flair.
and memorable for your audience.
no
yes
no
no
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no
no
no
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
You tend to give interesting and memorable speeches that
Treat every presentation as a ‘one-off’ and give your
are not particularly targeted at your audience and could be
audience the respect of preparing to speak to them as if
made more focused.
your reputation depended on it.
You tend to give relevant, tailored presentations that are
Let’s develop the skills of ruthless focus that will lead
interesting and memorable but could be made more
you to give even better presentations because the are
focused.
shorter.
You tend to give presentations that are not particularly
Take things a step at a time and build your skills in
focused to your audience’s needs. They could also be made
getting ‘Fit’ first, then ‘Focus’ and lastly add Flair for
more economically and more interesting.
maximum impact.
You tend to give short, interesting and memorable
You’ve developed the two most difficult skills, but
speeches that are not particularly suited to your audience
sometimes let yourself down by not making sure exactly
or the occasion.
what the audience wants.
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How to add Fit
To understand exactly what it is that the audience wants and needs to know so you can be careful about choosing what to put in. 1. Call the key audience members before you start to prepare and get their views. 2. Send them an outline of the presentation to check it’s OK. 3. Talk to the leaders or opinion formers before the session, on the day. 4. Email them with an outline of what you’re going to talk about and ask them for their feedback. If you’re lacking Fit, click here.
How to add Focus
Be ruthless about delivering what the audience wants and needs to know from your presentation. 1. Identify the (single) point of your presentation. 2. List specifically what you want the audience to know, understand, do by the end of your talk. 3. Create a simple ‘storyboard’ and edit ruthlessly for sense, logic, evidence and conclusions. To improve your Focus, click here.
How to add Flair
To deliver this tailored, focused presentation in as interesting and memorable way as it is possible to do, given the constraints that the audience needs put upon your ability to add that flair. Adding Flair is about doing two things: 1. Removing the clutter that gets in the way of a focused clear and memorable presentation. 2. Adding all of the tricks, techniques and the skills that public speakers use in order to make what they say interesting and memorable, but we’d suggest you only do that once you’ve removed the clutter from your speech.
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Examples of Flair • • • • • • • • • • •
No ‘clutter’ A simple story structure Real knowledge of your audience that shows in the presentation Passion and enthusiasm in the delivery Clear conclusions A call to action Evidence & examples of how your thing can help them Relevant anecdotes A strong start and finish to the presentation Audience involvement Simple visual aids
If you need a bit more Flair, click here.
What is Clutter?
Here is a list of things that we‘ve seen clutter up the average corporate presentation. Tidying it up will help you make your point much more powerfully.
Story Clutter • • • • •
Unclear structure No clear point to the presentation Lack of focus on what the audience needs from the presentation Too much detail Too many words
Visual Clutter • Too many bullet points • Diagrams that make no point or make a simple point in a very complex way • Diagrams that appear all at once in a riot of colour. Arrows and words that simply confuse an audience
Verbal Clutter • • • • •
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Long sentences Long words Technical jargon Your company jargon Unnecessary repetition
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chapter 17 Tips for... Building a strong story
The story is the thing Understand that you’ve got a strong message and everything else will follow. So many business presentations have little or poor story structure. Here are a few ideas that will help you to make your points interesting and memorable for every crowd you see. 1. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and ask ‘if I were them what would be interesting, useful and relevant to know and understand about this subject?’ 2. Brainstorm everything you could say on the subject onto a single piece of paper. 3. Consult with key members of the audience about what it is they want to know, don’t want to know. Then decide what you absolutely have to tell them. 4. Go back to your brainstorm and highlight those things that now will feature in your presentation and write your presentation objectives - In this presentation I will show X, Y and Z, and explain how we came to this decision. Then I will tell them exactly what I think they need to do and by when, to make the most of their investment. 5. Build the storyboard- Act by Act and keep on grinding until there’s a real rational, logical path through the presentation. 6. Create a storyboard that tells the story with key scenes & content from each part. 7. Create the visuals to support the storyboard. 8. Add a high impact prologue (introduction) and epilogue (conclusion). 9. Build your ‘script’ through rehearsal and repetition out loud rather than writing it out.
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10. Write your script to the level you require (bullet points are best but in some very important or sensitive presentations you have to be scripted word for word).
Creating great visual aids
Ten golden rules Follow these and you’ll always have your audience’s attention for the right reason. 1. Start your Prezi only after you’ve completed your presentation plan and storyboard or you’ll have an overlong, text driven, linear presentation. 2. If you’re working from an existing presentation, use that as your storyboard and add story structure, edit ruthlessly and remove visual, verbal and text clutter. 3. Use pictures and diagrams before words, and use words as little as possible. Use a short word instead of a long word wherever you can. 4. Only use visuals that support your story. 5. Explain jargon TLA’s (Three Letter Acronyms) and technical terms as you use them. 6. Use muted colours with no unnecessarily complex graphics or animations that can be seen in any light conditions. 7. Make sure your images are of good quality and won’t pixelate on zooming. 8. Match the style of your visuals to the subject and audience. 9. Use occasional theoretical models & frameworks to structure information: time lines, force field analysis, evaluation of pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses . 10. Follow the example set by newspapers, TV and radio news bulletins.
Setting up on the day
There’s so much you can do before the event. Make sure that you have a great experience on the day. 1. Call the venue to specify how you’d like the room set up well before the event, confirm in writing after the discussion and expect that it won’t be done when you get there. 2. Arrange to show up early on the day to check out the room set-up and that all of the equipment works.
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3. Be cautious in your presentation preparation and avoid complex video clips, animation, sound effects and web links, that might not work so well on the day with strange projectors, sound systems and weak web connections. 4. Remember the adage ‘if it can go wrong, it will go wrong...’ and make plans to deal with it. 5. Remove clutter & stuff from the room, like tables & chairs that won’t be used, that get between you and the audience. 6. Bring a pointer (laser or a stick) and a remote control mouse so that you can move away from the computer during your presentation. 7. Whatever computer you use, use a power cord and turn off power management, screensaver, e-mail and other pop-up applications that might interrupt your talk. 8. Use a template that works whatever the lighting conditions in the room or on the day. White text on a black background will never fail... though it might not be your organization’s ‘official’ template. 9. When you’re set up, sit in key audience member’s seats to check you can see the visuals and read the text on the presentation. 10. Keep some room lights on. The audience usually wants to see the speaker and it’s great for the speaker to be able to see all of the audience too.
Starting brilliantly
So many people ask how do you start well in a presentation. Remember that the first 2 minutes are the point at which you have the audience’s full attention, so the best presenters use that full attention to full effect: to intrigue, interest and take control of the room - to allow their story to be told. 1. Contact as many people as you can before the date and ask them what they want to get out of the session, what they’d like to know and what they don’t want. Even if they don’t respond, they’ll remember you asked them. 2. Get a list of names before the event and memorize as much of the list as you can, then fit faces to names as they walk in to the room. 3. Meet people (even if you know them) as they come into the room, shake hands, have a brief chat with them to help show your confidence and ‘break the ice’. 4. Tell them who you are and why you’re there (“I’m the person who knows this system as well as anybody in the world and I’d like to help you learn how to make the most of this excellent piece of software...”).
© Jim Harvey 2014
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5. At the start tell them what they’re going to get out of being here (You’ll get an interesting, useful and memorable set of hints and tips that will help you to make the most of the investment you’re making.). 6. Tell them how long you’ll be and that if they ‘do with patient ears attend...’ they’ll get lots out of the session. (“I’ll talk for 20 minutes, and you’ll see how useful this product will be for you...”). 7. Tell them what you want them to do to get the most out of the talk. (“Please feel free to ask questions as we go through and help me to give you what you need, though if I’m going to cover the point later I may ask you to be a little patient with me...”). 8. Match your energy to the energy in the room (just above the energy level of a quiet room and just below that of a noisy room). 9. Take them through the ‘story structure’ for the presentation so they see your logic at the start. 10. Do your introduction to a blank screen at the start so they focus on you
Freshening your delivery
You are the final ingredient. Make a good presentation on paper go well in the real world. 1. Create a positive atmosphere, before you start presenting, by greeting people and making them feel welcome as they come into the room. 2. Show enthusiasm for the subject. If you don’t, your audience won’t be enthusiastic either. Put a lot of energy in and that energy will transfer to the audience. It’s called charisma. 3. Stay out of the way of your visuals and use the space that you have to move around. 4. It’s OK to move toward the screen and touch it to emphasize a point and it’s great to address individuals by name to build a sense of connection with the people in the room. 5. Keep your body ‘open’ to the audience as much as you can and that helps you keep eye contact too. An occasional glance at the screen should be all you need to see to speak about the Prezi’s content. 6. 80% of your speech should be said straight to the audience so get into the habit of looking at the audience as you speak, and saying nothing as you look to your materials for your next ‘cue’. 7. Don’t ever read your presentation word for word to the audience. 8. Use presentation ‘builds’ like they do on the TV news, for emphasis and impact to help you make your points powerfully.
© Jim Harvey 2014
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9. Personalize your presentation. Use your life experience and humanity to sprinkle stories, thoughts, and personal views throughout your talk. 10. Real confidence in a presenter is about talking in good faith to your audience. You don’t have to try to be anything other than yourself, speaking with skill to get your message across.
Using your voice
It’s your instrument and most of us don’t really know how to use it. 1. Rehearse in the place where you’ll make your speech if you can, it makes a full dress rehearsal and readies you for the real thing. If you can’t use the venue, use somewhere like it. 2. Project to people at the back of the room by imagining the breath that you’ll need to make your voice get there and doing it. 3. Learn to breathe from your diaphragm for deep, slow, powerful breaths that give you all the oomph you need to project. 4. Practice hitting the end consonants of the words (‘She sells seashells on the sea shore’ is unintelligible to an audience unless you do). 5. Use the punctuation (verbal or actual) to pause for breath which helps your delivery and allows the audience to catch up with what you’re saying. Practise a comma for a short pause (say ‘one thousand’ inside your head) and breathe, full stop twice that, paragraph three times ‘one thousand’ again. 6. Rehearse the pauses too because confident use of them will help you to deliver your key points, with real impact. 7. Emphasise the 2 or 3 key words in a sentence to deliver the real meaning in what you say. 8. Practise changes of pace, emphasis, tone and drama until it feels right for you. That’s what rehearsal is for, not simply so you remember what to say, but how you say it too. 9. If there are words, phrases, or parts of the speech you just can’t say in rehearsal, cut them out or change them because you won’t be able to say them in the real thing. 10. Speak with your real voice, not your ‘phone voice’ or your ‘actor’s voice’. Your own voice with its accent, inflection, pitch and tone will deliver the most credible message to your audience.
© Jim Harvey 2014
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The final polish
Because there’s always a little hint or tip that will help you go a long way. 1. Don’t distribute handouts at the beginning or during your talk. People will read them rather than listen to you. Mention at the outset the handouts will be available after the talk so that the listeners don’t have to take notes. 2. Do distribute handouts at the start if you have an international audience whose English may not allow them to understand your speech ‘live’. 3. Do remind the audience of unfamiliar definitions or jargon before you use them in your speech and don’t assume that everyone in the audience understand the things that you assume. 4. Deliberate repetition is good and helps an audience remember your key themes for ever. Accidental repetition of pointless data is dull and shows a lack of preparation or thought by the presenter. 5. Don’t discount or undermine your presentation, your profession or yourself. It reduces your credibility to no benefit. 6. Complete your talk in less than your allotted time. Leave more time for questions and discussion from the audience. 7. When you are asked a question, it’s a good idea to restate the question for the audience and to check that it’s really a question and not just someone looking to make a point themselves. 8. Plan to stay a while after your talk. People often want to talk with you about what you’ve said and tell you what they think. 9. After your talk, check how you did with the audience, ask them what else they need to know, what you’ve missed, how you can do better next time. Make notes about the experience and what you’ve learned to use in the next one. 10. Remember that every presentation can be better and treat triumph and tragedy as opportunities to learn!
© Jim Harvey 2014
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chapter 18 Further reading and support We’re always searching for information to make us better at creating and delivering presentations – so we’ve included a list of the books and blogs we’ve learnt from over the years. You can find all of these books, and more, on our Amazon store page – where we receive a small payment for any purchases you make.
Great books
Garr Reynolds - Presentation Zen and Presentation Zen Design
Garr takes inspiration from the beautiful and rich culture of Japan to provide sound design advice – a brilliant handbook for designing beautiful Prezi presentations.
Nancy Duarte - Resonate (and all her other books)
Nancy writes mostly about PowerPoint presentations, but her great concept of designing a presentation and using PowerPoint makes her advice valuable no matter what you’re presenting with.
Chip and Dan Heath - Made to Stick
A great book investigating what makes some ideas memorable and some not. Not only does it leave you with a sound understanding of how to craft a memorable message – it’s packed full of great anecdotes.
Christian Leborg - Visual Grammar
The lessons of this book can be translated to any design job – it will become your personal design handbook.
Max Atkinson - Lend me Your Ears A crash course in writing and making great speeches and presentations. Max frames everything around rules and lists to make all of his lessons easy to remember and ready to put into action. Scott Berkun - Confessions of a Public Speaker
Scott has been there, done that, and he’s got tried and tested answers to all of your presenting questions. Whatever your occupation, you’ll love this book not just for the lessons, but the hilarious writing style they’re told with.
© Jim Harvey 2014
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Kevin Dutton - Flipnosis
Learn the art of instant persuasion, and how it can improve you in both your professional and personal life. Kevin weaves stories of the best and worst persuasive minds of history with cutting edge science to show us just how powerful and persuasive we could be.
Chris Atkinson - Beyond Bullet Points
Chris is on a mission to eradicate boring bullet point led presentations. Use this book to learn how to distil and shape your best ideas into a crisp and compelling narrative instead.
Peter Coughter - The Art of the Pitch The Art of the Pitch isn’t a list of abstract techniques some people use to make their presentations great. It’s a workbook designed to help you to adapt your natural presenting style to develop really persuasive presentations which close every deal. David Keane - Pitching to Win David Keane is a leading pitch consultant and trainer; in this book he helps you to break down what your audience wants to know, and how to give them that information in the best possible way.
Blogs we recommend for inspiration and practical help
Any other questions
Stay Up-to-Date
Jim’s blog: jim-harvey.com Prezi blog Beautiful Bits (Prezi’s design blog) Garr Reynold’s Presentation Zen Lisa Braithwaite’s Speak Schmeak Vivek Singh’s All About Presentations Jan Schultink’s Idea Transplant Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points
Do you have a burning question, or problem you can’t solve? First check out the Prezi Manual, and FAQs, and if you still have remaining problems or questions, visit Prezi’s great support forum, check if anyone has already asked your question – and if not, ask it for yourself. You will nearly always be able to find the answer to your question or problem here, and if you ask a question you should receive an answer the same day. If all else fails, you can report a problem through the support forum, or premium customers can get direct support.
In technology terms, Prezi is still relatively young, and as such is constantly being changed and improved. There are updates, additions, and bug fixes coming out every day so sign up for the Prezi blog to keep informed, and get a regular dose of Prezi inspiration. You can also check for an up-to-date list of all of the new features here. And if you’re ever short of inspiration for creating your Prezi, or looking for a design to copy, take a look at what the community is doing. Of course our blog is regularly updated with presentation skills advice.
© Jim Harvey 2014
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chapter 19 Our Prezi services Prezi Training
We provide tailored 1 and 2 day Prezi courses to suit beginners and more experienced users. These can be arranged to suit you; as one-to-one, group, in-house or remote courses. The courses are hands-on and lead by the needs of the people attending. We have run courses in the UK and overseas, and for individuals and organisations such as JC Decaux, JP Morgan and the International Federation for Transport Workers. We teach you not only the practical skills to use Prezi the tool, but also the principles of how to use it well to create a stand-out Prezi. Click for more information on our Prezi training options.
Prezi Design
Let us design your Prezi for you. If you have an important presentation, let us design and build you a memorable Prezi to help you share your message in the best way possible. We work with you from considering your budget, what type of Prezi you want for your situation, through to building you a great Prezi. We consult with you through-out, making the process stress free and cost effective. Contact us for more information on our Prezi Design service.
Prezi Graphics Packs
If you are creating a Prezi and are short on time and inspiration, our Prezi Graphics Packs are here to help. The packs are designed by us, with our 3 Act Speech Structure in mind, so you can concentrate on your message and create a successful presentation. Our packs are a flexible way to create your next Prezi and leave you with a set of useful graphics to use in the future. Browse and download our FREE Prezi Graphics Packs here.
Our Prezi Blog
© Jim Harvey 2014
Visit our blog for tips and advice on all things Prezi.
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