PowerPoint is dead, and Prezi’s what killed it

Posted on Aug 12, 2010 in Design | 16 comments

Prezi. Sounds weird, doesn’t it? But I’m sure “PowerPoint” sounded weird when people first heard about it, too (back in 1987!).

It may sound weird, but after having given it a shot for the first time yesterday, I must say I’m very impressed with it. So what is “it?“ Prezi is an online presentation tool (“prezi” is short for “presentation,” get it?) that takes a completely different approach than Microsoft’s venerable PowerPoint and Apple’s Keynote software. Instead of using a slide as its base unit, Prezi is essentially one giant canvas upon which text, images, videos, and other elements can be placed. These elements can all be scaled, rotated, grouped and moved within the canvas, and then tied together in a non-linear fashion with a path. This path is a guide when the presentation is given, where the elements slide, zoom, and rotate into view depending on their position, size,  and orientation. That sounds complicated when it really isn’t. Honestly, this is one of those times where words aren’t as good as just watching the thing in action. Here’s an introduction to Prezi that’ll make a lot of sense.

A unique and surprisingly good interface

Prezi's unique bubble menu provides access to features, with sub-menu item appearing as smaller bubbles

What I found most intriguing about the tool is how well designed its interface is. Prezi’s mental model is very different than PowerPoint’s, yet it was intuitive enough where I felt comfortable using it after only a few minutes. As you’ve seen from the video above, the “zebras” associated with each canvas element let you manipulate them quickly and surprisingly smoothly. The bubble menu itself, stationed in the upper-left corner of the screen, exhibits Prezi-like behavior by zooming and spinning to reveal options that  would be sub-menus in a more traditional interface. Though I liked exploring the bubble menu and watching it spin around, I was soon grateful for the keyboard shortcuts for common options like uploading an image (L) or adding path points (P).

I did find myself wishing for two features, though. First, a way to group elements together. If I put a title, some text, and an image, say, all together as a unit, I should be able to tell Prezi to treat it as one. That way it could be moved, scaled, or rotated together. And while it is possible to select multiple items to perform these actions on, there’s no way (that I could find, at least) to have Prezi remember that selection as a group.

Second, I wish there were more ways to style text. Perhaps it’s the PowerPoint mentality in me, but I’d like to be able to italicize or bold specific words for visual emphasis. Prezi limits text to just two heading levels and a body style. I tried the highlighter tool, but as it works like a pen, not as a text-selection tool, my highlights looked too jagged and childish to be of any use. To its credit, though, I must say the available themes are high quality and varied—not to mention fun to watch as they sweep across the canvas when you apply them.

Free or paid, Prezi is a good value

As with other web-based tools of this nature (like Gliffy, which aimed to be a Visio killer), Prezi has free and paid versions. But rather than hobble the free account by restricting features, it requires that your content be public (and of course, watermarked with Prezi’s logo). This is what got me turned on to Prezi initially: a huge library of interesting topics that are fun to watch. A sort of YouTube for presentations, if you will.

The free version also limits you to 100 Mb, but my first attempt weighed in at only 19 Mb. So you can have four or five good-sized presentations for free; that seems very reasonable to me. And if you do decide to pay the $60/year for an “Enjoy”-level account, you’re still paying less than what a copy of PowerPoint will cost you.

Prezi is Flash-based and worked equally well (and quickly) on Safari, Firefox on both my Mac and PC at work. What’s more impressive is you can download your Prezis to your own computer—even with a free account! They appear to be a stand-alone Flash player and can no longer be edited but they’ll play without an internet connection: great for avoiding ridiculously expensive internet-service charges at conference hotels!

Maybe PowerPoint isn’t dead, exactly

You’ll have to excuse the title of this post as a little blogging hyperbole. PowerPoint’s been around a long time and is well entrenched in corporate and academic settings; it’s probably not going away anytime soon. But tools like Prezi really do offer a very different approach to sharing ideas with a room full of people—or the entire internet! Lots of folks have started noticing Prezi, as well as lamenting PowerPoint’s faults. I expect Prezi and other tools like it will begin to erode PowerPoint’s dominance over the coming years.

Related: If you liked this, check out:

1. Night of the Living Dead (kids) Kids, I know, are desensitized to violence thanks to the...