Recently at Optimus we have decided to relook at how we conduct presentations. For years it was always the case that if you wanted to create a presentation – PowerPoint was always the answer. However like with everything else, technology has increased your choice of tools. As we are currently deciding between the 3 ourselves, we have decided to show you what we have found when comparing them.
PowerPoint
It is well known as the ‘Ye old faithful’ of presentational tools. It has been around as part of the Microsoft Office package since 1990 and has definitely developed over those 20 years.
Here are the basics first. The programme uses the ‘Slide’ system where you can separate each part of your presentation into these individual segments. You can then click or set on a timer to decide how long each slide is shown for. You can have images, video and text on the slides to convey information and you can use transitions and animations to make the information enter and exit in more visually appealing ways. Below is the standard look of PowerPoint.
PowerPoint’s main strength is how user friendly it is. With the majority of people using Microsoft programmes fairly frequently in their life at one stage at least, most people are fairly familiar with the layout and how things work – with PowerPoint being no exception to their other programmes. Therefore it can be incredibly quick and easy to create a presentation from scratch that looks as professional or as creative as you want. Often, people want to spend the majority of their time preparing their own speech rather than the visual aid, so this supplements this perfectly as minimal time can be spent on it.
However the programme does have some drawbacks. The slide system, whilst fantastic for many years and visually appealing, has become slightly dated with competitors breaking the boundaries of how a presentation can be done. The narrative for your presentation has to be very 1 dimensional on a PowerPoint presentation as the structure is very ordered. The visual aspects of the programme are also limited, with other programmes being a lot more visually engaging nowadays.
Prezi
Prezi is a relatively young tool – only formed in 2009, but has already been adopted by many business people as their prime presentational tool.
Again, I will explain the basics first. Prezi moved away from the slide approach and introduced what they call a ‘canvas’. This is a massive foundation which your presentation will be based on. Instead of a structured narrative that has to follow 1 line, you create a number of slide-like frames on the canvas, then direct the camera which order it moves around them, allowing it go back to previous ones. It also has a zoom feature. This allows you to concentrate the presentation on individual parts or zoom out to allow viewers the bigger picture. The canvas can have images, video and text again in order to portray your ‘story’ like below.
The main benefits of using a Prezi presentation are the visual aspect that it creates. The camera can move freely between frames, zoom in and out when necessary and just generally engage the audience more than the standard slide approach. The programme is flash-based and therefore allows greater freedoms than the more basic PowerPoint. We have found Prezi to be a very flexible way of showing more complex ideas and messages. The most important thing when it comes to Prezi we feel though is imagination. The programme allows you to do so much, but it can sometimes be hard to break away from a 1 dimensional way of thinking and really make the most of it.
Prezi does have its drawbacks however. Due to the features it has and the fact most people will be unfamiliar with the programme, it takes a little while to get used to the functions and tools. So for anybody that doesn’t particularly want to learn a new programme it can be inconvenient. Even after you get used to the software, it will in general take longer to create an effective presentation using Prezi, than it will PowerPoint. Each presentation requires a good amount of time to be put into it to be of high quality. Finally, as I mentioned before, it takes imagination to really make the most of the software’s capabilities. This tends to come with practice with the software, looking at other’s Prezi presentations and really getting your mind away from the PowerPoint thought process. Some people may not do this as well as others.
VideoScribe
VideoScribe is one of several companies on the market that supply Whiteboard Animation. Again, they are a relatively young company, being founded in 2008.
Whiteboard animation in simple terms is when a presentation looks like it is being drawn out, on an imaginary whiteboard. So a hand will physically come onto the screen and pretend to write whatever it is you want in the presentation. Much like Prezi, you get a canvas type page where you base your presentation on however the ability to go back and forth between frames is limited. You can have images and text on your whiteboard however these are slightly limited by the fact; the best looking animations are on the images the programme supplies. You can also zoom in and out on VideoScribe as well as apply voiceovers and background music. It is also easily transferrable onto YouTube. You can see what the desktop looks like below.
VideoScribe’s main strength is the visual element created by the hand coming onto the screen and drawing your presentation. It is quite a novel way and certainly sets the programme apart from the other choices. The ease that you can apply voiceovers and background music is also unmatched by the others and can make the creation of a very detailed and professional presentation quicker to make. Finally as mentioned before, it is very easy to transfer them onto YouTube. Therefore if you want to create a presence on YouTube for your company but like us you don’t have a face for camera, then it can also be used to create small videos outlining your business.
The main drawback I found with VideoScribe is the lack of text you can really include in your presentation. The drawing hand is unique and interesting when used in small amounts; however it can quickly become irritating if used to write large paragraphs of writing. Therefore either your speech or a pre-recorded voiceover needs to be used to put over detailed information, where the programme is best used for largely visual elements. What you can put is also more limited than the others in terms of diagrams and tables. Finally, the programme has only a weeklong trial before you have to pay to go Pro.
So after trying out all of these programmes and experimenting which is the best for giving presentations, I’m afraid there is no definitive answer in terms of which you should use. PowerPoint will always have value as being incredibly simple to use and quick to create professional looking, if basic, presentations. There are a lot of scenarios where the pure professional, no thrills attached look will be the best option. Prezi and VideoScribe on the other hand may well be better if your business has a creative brand image and you want your presentation to portray this. In my opinion they can all be placed on a chart comparing professionalism with visual aesthetics and creativity like below:
Our conclusion is that PowerPoint is more useful if what you want is a simple, clean and highly professional presentation especially for situations such as business meetings or pitches to clients. VideoScribe is useful if you want the presentation to be highly engaging and the situation is less formal – i.e. internal meetings, training sessions or if your company is maybe more creative itself – for example a graphic design company. Finally, Prezi is a compromise of the 2. It looks more formal/professional than VideoScribe but is more aesthetically restricting and allows more freedom creatively than PowerPoint, but looks less professional. Basically you have to judge whereabouts on the above scale the situation lies, and then choose accordingly.
