The post below is a guest contribution from Susannah Shattuck. Susannah is the Content Marketing Manager at Prezi. She coordinates the creation and distribution of blog posts, infographics, videos, webinars, and—most importantly—prezis as tools for driving brand awareness, website traffic, and sales leads. She is also a longtime fan of Prezi and can’t imagine using any other tool for her presentations!
7 Things You Want to Know About Prezi
At Prezi, we love helping people create great presentations. Whether you’re giving a major conference keynote or pitching to a potential customer, you need a tool that will help you deliver a more engaging and persuasive presentation.
Over the last six years, we’ve built Prezi to be the best tool out there for presenters, and we’ve spent a lot of time helping those presenters understand how to use it to the fullest. When it comes to learning how to use Prezi, we’ve heard every question in the book. Here are answers to some of the most popular that we’ve heard:
1. How can I turn my old PowerPoint deck into a prezi?
If you’re like most new Prezi users, you probably have a lot of old slides sitting on your hard drive. With Prezi, it’s easier than ever to turn your PowerPoint decks into dynamic, visual presentations. Prezi’s PowerPoint import feature does all the heavy lifting of turning your slides into vector-based PDF’s, which you can then crop and arrange into a meaningful structure on Prezi’s open canvas.
If you want to learn more about converting your slide-based presentations into prezis, take a look at this recap of our recent webinar, “How to Turn Your Boring Slide Decks Into Dynamic Prezis.”
2. How do I embed a video into my prezi?
There’s nothing like a little multimedia content to spice up your presentations. Embedding a video into your prezi is as easy as clicking a button. There are a couple of different options, depending on what kind of video you want to embed:
Directly from YouTube:
All you have to do is open the “Insert” menu and select “YouTube video.” (Pro tip: you can even skip the “Insert” tools by pasting the URL of your video straight into a text box on the Prezi canvas. Give it a try and see what happens!)
From a file on your computer:
You can also insert videos that aren’t on YouTube by selecting “From file (PDF, video)” on the “Insert” menu. Prezi supports a wide variety of file types, including .mov, .mp4, .mpeg, and more.
Pro tip: if you want your video to autoplay when come to it in your presentation, you’ll need to add the video itself (not just the frame in which it’s sitting) to your prezi’s path.
3. Can I present my prezis offline?
Prezi is a cloud-based tool, which means that you can access your presentations online no matter where you are or what device you’re on. One of the most common misconceptions about Prezi, however, is that you have to be connected to the Internet in order to edit, view, and present your prezis.
In fact, Prezi has several offline solutions for people who would like to access their presentations without an Internet connection. Whether you’re giving a presentation at a conference with lousy wi-fi, or you need to make changes to a big client pitch on the plane, there are options for you to edit and present offline:
Prezi for Windows/Mac allows you to download your presentations so that you can present them offline, no matter where you are. With a Prezi Pro license, you can also use our desktop application to create and edit your prezis—so you can make those key last-minute changes before a major meeting without worrying about connecting to the wi-fi.
Download a Portable Prezi if you are preparing for a big presentation and aren’t sure if you will have access to wifi. All you have to do is hit “Download,” and select “For Presenting Only.” You are then free to put the portable prezi zip file onto a flash drive or to send it via email—no special software required to present.
4. Do prezis work on mobile devices?
With Prezi for iOS (both iPhone and iPad), and Prezi for Android, you can view and present your presentations on any device, no matter where you go. And even without these apps, your colleagues and clients can click through your presentation in a browser on their mobile devices. So go ahead, text somebody the link to your next presentation!
5. How can I share my prezi with colleagues and clients?
Send a link to anyone. Anybody can access a prezi that is public or hidden if they have its URL. Simply click “Share,” and copy the URL there, or copy the URL directly from your web browser, and then share via email, instant message, tweet, or however else you’d like. It’s as simple as that!
Give other Prezi users special access. If you want to send over a presentation to a colleague so they can add their own content, you can make them an editor of your prezi. Just click “Share,” and then type that person’s email address into the box at the bottom. Make sure you use the email address associated with her prezi account!
Pro tip: If you are working on the prezi at the same time as other collaborators, you will be able to see their edits in real-time. That’s right, no more attachments named “presentation_final_noreallyfinal_v02.ppt”!
6. How do I print out my prezi?
A lot of people like to leave their audience with a physical takeaway after their presentations. If you’d like to print out your prezi for your audience to take home with them, it’s easy. While in “Edit” mode, click the share icon in the top right-hand corner of the editor. From the dropdown that appears, click, “Download as PDF.” Prezi will automagically convert each path step of your presentation into one page of a printable PDF.
7. Where can I go to get more Prezi training?
There are a number of different places you can go to get more in-depth Prezi training than the tips and tricks provided in this post—here are three of our top recommendations:
Our team has created hundreds of articles, videos, and prezis designed to teach you how to use Prezi. Whether you’re just getting started or looking for more advanced tips, the Learn & Support page has something for you.
Several times a week, we offer webinars that teach you how to use Prezi in a live setting. Learn some of the best tips from our expert trainers, and get more personalized help through the Q&A session that follows the presentation.
The Prezi Community Forum
If you have a specific question that you need answered, head over to the Prezi Community Forum. The community of expert users and official Prezi support agents who frequent the forum will be sure to have all the answers to your questions and more—all you have to do is ask.
Additional Resources:
Presentation Design Tips from the Prezi Team
3 Steps to Turn Your Presentations Into Content Marketing Gold
PowerPoint Alternatives – Give These A Whirl Before Your Next Presentation
