1. Prezi Workshop
4 December 2012
Darius Whelan / University College Cork
[screenshot from Prezi by Síofra Flood of Swrve ]
A quick introduction to Prezi:
Youtube – “Zoom with Prezi” video –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTbq1tAbHss
Strengths of Prezi
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Allows ‘mind map’ style presentation. Not as linear as Powerpoint.
A refreshing change from Powerpoint?
Weaknesses of Prezi
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Doesn’t necessarily add very much to Powerpoint
May make students seasick!
There can be technical issues – e.g. may not work in all classrooms
Prezi is cloud-based. If your web connection goes down (as happened me last night)
you are a bit stuck. You can’t keep going, although at least it will have autosaved
every minute or so.
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2. When you create an account, you can upgrade to an educational licence for free (I have done
this).
The only advantage is that you can make presentations private.
You still have to pay if you want to be able to work offline using Prezi desktop.
You get 500 MB storage (instead of 100 MB).
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To upgrade your licence, click on your name, then settings and account, then
upgrade your licence, then student and teacher licences.
Good examples of Prezis on legal topics
Jeremy De Beer: http://prezi.com/user/r26hl971azv2/
For the seminar today, please start on the Blank template
There are two different ‘looks’ - classic look and new look.
For the seminar today we will use the new look.
Moving around the canvas
To zoom – two options
• Hover over to right of screen and plus and minus buttons appear
• Or: Use your mouse scroll wheel
Panning: To move your prezi canvas left, right, up, or down, hold down the left button
of your mouse and then move in the direction you want to go
To take a step back and get an overview of everything you've added so far (both in
Edit and Present mode), you can use the Home button on the right hand side of your
screen (you can find it just above the zoom + and - buttons).
Frames and Text
Click anywhere on the canvas to add text
Frames are the equivalent of slides
If you just choose “add frame” it automatically adds the frame to the right of your
current frame
So you may be better off to choose (for example) Add Frames > Draw Invisible
Frame
Hold down shift when drawing frames and hidden frames to maintain a perfect 4:3
aspect ratio
Type some text. This is a textbox.
It comes up very large by default.
Select the text and the zebra tool appears
Use minus to reduce the size of the object.
One textbox can only have one font.
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3. If you want a frame to look like a slide with title and then body:
You need separate textboxes for each part.
The title is formatted as title
The body is formatted as body etc (in a separate text box)
Also note you can break text apart. If you have multiple lines in a textbox you
can select some lines and drag them out into a separate textbox.
To change font in new look:
Themes button at top of page > Customize Current Theme > Advanced
You can’t change fonts for different frames, but I suppose if you really wanted to use
another font you could have a picture of the relevant text
To select a whole group of objects at once: Shift and then drag around objects with mouse
Paths
Edit your path and its points in Edit mode and take your audience along that path in
Present mode.
To set your path, click the ‘Edit Path’ button on the left-hand side of screen. Then
click on the objects in your prezi canvas in the order you wish them to appear.
You can also use the Edit Path sidebar to add new path points.
Use the sidebar to rearrange and delete path points or to zoom to a specific path
point.
When editing Path:
If the cursor appears as a plus sign then you are in ‘Edit Path’ mode.
(If you are in edit path mode a notice appears at top of screen “Editing Path Steps”)
To get out of that mode, click “Done” at top of screen.
To delete a path step:
Hover over the thumbnail and a little red cross appears in the corner of the thumbnail.
Layer text and objects: send backward, bring forward
The ability to send objects backward or bring them forward allows you to layer items
in your prezi. This is particularly useful when you have a frame around several items
or a background image that overlaps with objects in your prezi. To Send Backward or
Bring Forward, bring up the Transformation Zebra by clicking once on the object you
want to move forward or back and then right-click on it to access the secondary
editing options.
Exporting to PDF
Press the print button
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4. Importing Powerpoint slides
To display a Prezi in class:
Be aware that Prezi may not work on all podium PCs.
For example, it does not work in Brookfield Health Science Complex.
Test the Prezi in advance on a podium PC.
If it doesn’t work, then bring a laptop onto which you have downloaded the Prezi for
offline viewing.
Crashes?
I was getting some crashes with Chrome.
So I switched to Internet Explorer as it’s more likely that’s what they have in the
library.
But Internet Explorer crashed too ….
So tried Firefox
Darius Whelan, Faculty of Law, University College Cork
Email: d.whelan@ucc.ie
http://publish.ucc.ie/researchprofiles/B012/dwhelan/
http://ssrn.com/author=506478
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