When Prezi was first arrived there was a lot of debate about whether it is better or worse than PowerPoint. The answer to this is better “is situational”, it depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
Using Prezi is beneficial when you want to present your message in a story format; Prezi has not only proven its strength inmaintaining audience attention butalso resulted in ultimate presentations.Learner can create mind maps while working with Prezi. On the other hand Power Point is a simple and linear tool which is considered good for presentations that includes reports.
Prezi and Power Point are good presentation tools in one or the other way, there are few shortcomings too that limiter both the tools. Below are few points that highlight the brighter and darker side of both Prezi and Power Point.
Let’s begin with Prezi.
Prezi pros and cons
Advantages
- Web Based- Prezi is web based software that can be accessed for anywhere and at any time i.e. from computer, tablet etc.
- Sharing- Prezi allows sharing; it allows sharing up to 10 audience and make collaborating on projects easy.
- Animations in Prezi are best suited when presenting the message in story form and thus highly appreciated by the users.
Disadvantages
- Dizziness- Prezi is zooming software but frequent and too much zooming can cause motion sickness thus results in distraction. Beginners may include too much zooming or useless panning and motions.
- Learning Curve-For most of the users Prezi is perceived as a tool which includes steep learning curves, although it does not take much time to learn the software but still it requires sometime for getting used to.Many people prefer working within their comfort zone whereas Prezi is outside that zone.To make the best use of non-linear fashion for which the software is good for requires a good practice and a lot of content knowledge.
- Limited access- Prezi do not allow complete access, it’s free only if you are happy for your presentation to be public, if you want to make private presentations you need to have an upgraded/premium account.
PowerPoint Pros and Cons
Advantages
- User friendly- PowerPoint is quick, easy to use and can make you appear organized.
- Standard- PowerPoint is almost expected in professional settings because it has been bundled with Microsoft office versions for more than a decade. Picking power point for making presentations does not require any learning curves. Hence, reduces time for understanding the software.
- Flexibility- Power Point allows customizing slides to fit your needs; customized slides are the presentation props that add value and style to your presentation.It helps in a number of ways to communicate with your audience. Depending on the approach, you may have presentation that is text-heavy, image- heavy or some combination of both.
- Visual Impact- Power Point provides an opportunity to use images, audio and video to have great visual impact. These visual and audio cues help a presenter to be more improvisational and interactive with the audience. Making the presentation more interesting always helps in grabbing viewers’ attention.
Disadvantages
- Linear format- some people do not accepts the linear format of power point and it is not easily adaptable to audience when needed. Getting to a specific slide, once the presentation has begun, can sometimes be difficult.
- Power Point offers no application to design pages(slides) that resembles newspapers or magazines.
- Many people avoid using Power Point animations as they are comparatively less smooth than Prezi animations.
General point of view for making Presentations
One basic thing to keep in mind is to: know your audience. Select the right technology to appeal your audience demographic profile.
Whichever tool you select the end result of the presentation should be positive, presentation should be able to deliver the message to the audience regardless of the tools being used for making the presentation.