How to Use Prezi

Prezi is an online presentation creation software that allows users to create compelling graphical presentations. We made this in hopes of teaching users, who may not be familiar with the software, how to effectively use this website to create presentations free of cost.

Using your computer, start your internet browser and navigate to www.prezi.com. Once there click on the blue “get started” button on the top right hand side of the website.

Once you click on “Get Started” you will be redirected to a page that list a variety of different pricing options for those who wish to pay a monthly fee to get extra features; to make a free account simply click on “Continue Free” on the right column of your screen. To make a new Prezi account the website will ask for your: first name; last name; e-mail address; password; and what of their listed career affiliations best describe you (if none of their listed affiliations apply to you, simply click on “other”). Once you have entered all your information, simply click on the “Create your free Public account” button, towards the bottom of the page.

Once logged in, you will be greeted with a welcome screen with a small floating overview of some of the features of Prezi; on the first screen click on “Get Started” and then click on the floating arrow button on the right hand side repeatedly until the “Start Creating” button appears; once you click on that, the welcome prompt disappears. You will be then redirected to a brief interactive tutorial; for the purposes of this demonstration, exit out of that tab, and once you do, you will be brought to the Prezi dashboard.

Once you are in the dashboard, click on the “Create a new Prezi” button to get started on making your new presentation. This button will take you to a new tab called the “Canvas” which is where you will edit your Prezi. It will prompt you to select a pre-made template by clicking on one of them and then clicking on the “Use template” button on the bottom right. If you so wish, you can also create a blank Prezi by clicking on “Start blank Prezi” button on the bottom of that prompt. For the purposes of this demonstration, select “Start a blank Prezi.”

Note: You can search for a specific template by using the search bar at the top of the prompt to type a query and then clicking on the magnifying glass symbol to the right of the bar.

Once you click on the “Start a blank Prezi” button the prompt will disappear and you will be able to see your “Canvas”. You will see a large circle with two labels reading “Click to add text”; the circle is called a frame and they are equivalent to “slides” on traditional presentation software such as PowerPoint. To begin creating your presentation, click on the field that reads “Click to add text” in bold to give your first frame a title. Once your cursor is in that text field, a small floating toolbar will appear above your cursor that allows you to modify the font settings, things such as: typeface; font choice (bold, italic, underline); text color; spacing; indentation and bulleted list, in case you wish to change your text’s formatting.

To create a new frame, click on the top left corner of the page where there is a circle with a “+” symbol in the middle; you can change the shape of the new frame before adding it by clicking on “Circle frame” button and selecting from: bracket; circle; rectangle or invisible. Once you select a shape that you like, click the “+” button and a new frame will be added to the screen. On the left hand side you will see the slide manager, you can hide/unhide it by clicking the handle in the middle. Every time you create a new frame it will be added in that order to the presentation; we will show you how to change the order later in this document. You can resize the frame by clicking and dragging on the edges of the square that appears whenever you select a frame. From that same menu you can reshape or delete a frame by clicking on their correspondingly labeled buttons.

Begin by adding text, to do so click inside the frame that you just added and a text field will appear which will allow you to type alongside the same floating toolbar containing the text styling choices described earlier. Give your new frame a title by selecting “Title” from the floating toolbar. To add body text, simply click on a different area of the frame and a new text field will appear, select on “Body” from the floating toolbar to create body text, which will be distinct from the title in appearance.

Add as many slides as required by your respective presentation by clicking on the “+” circle button on the top left corner of the page; add your textual information using the methods described above.

The easiest way to reorder your frames is to simply click and hold on the overview of your frames on the left hand side and dragging it to its desired position.

Alternative to dragging slides on the left, you can use the path manager to change slide order; just click on the “Edit Path” button on the bottom left hand side of to get started.

After you click on the “Edit Path” button, lines connecting each slide will appear; to change the order of the slides click on the numbered button next to a slide and drag it to a new slide. If you want to add another path simply click on the small “+” circle button and drag it into a new slide or object to place it into your presentation.

To supplement your text, you may want to add photos or even videos, in order to do so, simply click on “Insert” at the top of the page. A drop down menu will appear that will allow you to add an image, YouTube video, an arrow and much more. To add a photo click on “image” from the drop down menu and a side menu will appear with pre-loaded images; you can select one of their images or add your own by clicking on the “Select files” button and searching your computer files for the desired image. Add your image to a frame by clicking and dragging into your frame of choice.

To add a video using the “insert” menu, click on “YouTube video. A small pop up screen will appear; paste the YouTube video URL on this text field and click on the “Insert” button and the video will be added to your presentation.

In order to give visual appeal to your presentation click on “Customize” towards the top center of the page in order to edit the theme. Once you click on that, you will be taken to an editing screen in which you can select an image from your computer to set as a background by clicking on the “choose file” button. From this screen you can also select a color as a background by clicking on “color” or select from pre-made themes by clicking on them. Make a selection for your Prezi presentation, for this example we chose the “Eco” theme.

To further customize the look and feel of your Prezi, click on the “edit path” button found on the bottom left hand side of the page; once you do that, lines connecting each slide as well as a small star icon will appear on the screen. Click on the star icon of any particular frame to begin customizing the effect Prezi applies to each frame’s text.

Once you click on the star icon, you can apply a fade in effect to the text in your frame by clicking on it; if you are successful a green star with a number corresponding to the order of animation will appear. If you wish to turn off the animation simply click on the green (it will turn into a red x when your mouse hovers over it) and the star should disappear. To reorder the animation, remove the animation from your text and re-add them again in the order you wish by clicking on the text in the order in which you want it to animate and once you are done with that frame simply click on “done” at the top of that screen.

If you wish to edit your theme more precisely, go back to the Customize panel and scroll to the bottom, once there click on the “Advanced” button. This will make a small screen pop up that has many more options to customize your theme; you can change every individual color of your theme, such as frame and arrow color, for example, as well as the default text color of the body, subtitle, and title. To make your Prezi more immersive and fun, let’s apply a 3-D background. Click on the “edit” button next to the “3-D Background.”

A 3-D background makes it so that your Prezi zooms in to three different images as you switch from slide to slide, blurring them slightly as it moves along; the end result is a feeling of motion as you go through your presentation that can help make your audience more immersed and interested the in content you present. Once you click on the “edit” button you will be taken to a screen that will prompt you to browse your computer for a desired image to use for this effect three times, select the images that best correspond to your presentation, then click “done” at the bottom.

And you’re done! By using Prezi, your imagination is the limit, as to how you can decorate and animate your presentations to suit your needs and impress your audience.