Prezi vs. PowerPoint

Whether it's in the HSC or any other high school year, for english, legal, business, geography, economics, history or science, many of us will have to do a speech or presentation that requires the use of either PowerPoint or Prezi.  For some of us, we already love one and hate the other. However, if we weigh up the pros and cons of both programs, you can see if you're actually using the right program for you.

Price

Prezi is completely free as long as you don't mind doing it online with the public freely able to view your presentations. PowerPoint (Office 365) on the other hand, does require you to pay a fee that varies with which plan and package you choose. In saying that, nearly all school computers already have it installed so that shouldn't be too much of a worry.

User-friendliness

To some, Prezi generally has a smaller learning curve as there are less complicated features. However, most of us have probably used Powerpoint since our primary school years and are already familiar with it's basic functions. Although it does have more complicated features compared to Prezi, it does allow for more possibilities when it comes to slide designs.

Both Prezi and Powerpoint (Office 365) have an online version, making it easy to collaborate with others on group projects.

You can easily add photos, videos and other types of multimedia into your presentation in both programs. However, when it comes to editing photos and creating charts/tables, PowerPoint still has many more tools for this compared to Prezi.

Format

Prezi can give a flowing effect to a presentation which can help maintainthe concentration of your audience. Just be careful, make sure your animations aren't going in a circle; you don't want your audience to get dizzy! You're also able to zoom out to an overview of your presentation just by clicking the background, or zoom in to important details when needed.

PowerPoint on the other hand has a much more linear format (although you are able to create a flowing effect with different slide transition options), hence it's less adaptable to impromptu situations as it may be harder to get to particular slides (that are not in order) when you are presenting.

Printing

Both programs allow you to print off your presentation. However, as Powerpoint slides are by default rectangular in shape, printed handouts usually turn out much neater.

Hopefully this has helped you get an idea of the pros and cons of both programs, and can help you decide on which one to use for your next presentation. Remember though, no matter which one you decide to use, what is actually on your slides is much more important, so don't end up spending too much time choosing!

Jack Zheng | N° 13