There's More to Life Than PowerPoint

I’ve written about dreadful, bullet-filled PowerPoint presentations, and also the energy savings that come with using cloud computing. Believe it or not, I’m not the only one who’s somehow connecting these topics.

Recently, a colleague of mine mentioned a new presentation tool that solves some of the problems I’ve mentioned in my previous posts. At the same time, this tool is cloud-based, so it holds the promise of the energy efficiency advantages I mentioned in this post.

This is an unlikely and serendipitous connection. So, at the risk of gratuitously promoting someone else’s product, I’m compelled to mention this tool. It’s called Prezi.

In a nutshell, Prezi is a virtual whiteboard onto which you type text, and import pictures and video. Then you present by zooming and panning around the whiteboard. The effect is pretty cool, and best of all, it practically prohibits the typical linear death march through list after bulleted list that people often create when using another, highly popular, presentation software.

One thing I especially like about Prezi is its simplicity. There are no drop-down menus or button-laden toolbars. Instead, you drop your text, images and video onto the whiteboard and then move them around with your mouse until you get their arrangement right. The process is organic, and my impression is that it will serve presenters’ ideas better than the typical slide show, which can enforce a kind of structure (slides and bullets) that’s not always appropriate to the subject at hand.

A couple of samples probably can better illustrate this point. Here’s an amazing presentation for an astronomy class. And here’s a sample presentation on capturing and storing carbon emissions.

Notice how the zooming places the emphasis on important information and subsumes details to avoid overwhelming the viewer.

I also like that people working in different locations can collaborate on a presentation.

On the con side, printing a hard copy appears to be out of the question. Also, this tool is new and different. So, if you want to collaborate with others on a project, you’ll have to get them on the Prezi bandwagon, too.

And as cool as all that zooming and panning is, beware—too much of it can give people motion sickness.

These drawbacks aside, I’m definitely looking forward to using this tool some more.