Analysis by Comparison and Contrast - Essay Example

Prezi vs Power point Introduction Today’s business and academic world makes use of presentations to acquaint the stakeholders through visuals and textual images some main points about certain issues or products. From the traditional char and board presentations we have entered into a digital era where through multimedia we have lent such a dynamism to our presentations that our audience remain engaged with us and we are able to disseminate maximum amount of information to our students or clients.

Initially a program named power point prepared by Microsoft was exploited to these commercial and academic ends. Through this we could manipulate different text fonts, images and audios and videos to make our presentations lively. From computer-based Power Point , we have move a step forward and have accessed to an interactive web based program that has lent more sophistication to our presentations. In the following lines we will do a comparative analysis of both the programs and will find out the differences between these two progrms.

Power Point and Prezi, though used for the same ends, have different environments and tools to offer. Power Point is a presentation tools which with the help of multimedia is used for different textual and image based presentation coupled with certain visual effects. On the other hand “Prezi is a presentation and story-telling tool that works on virtual canvas and is cloud-based. What makes Prezi unique is its feature that lets you zoom in and out of the presentation objects, which is made possible with the added Z-axis” ( “Oolong Presentations”.

Prezi is a modern tool which addresses some shortcomings of the powerpoint presentations and offers more flexible tools for the presentation of the text. Fig: An image of power point presentation Source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/first-look-powerpoint- 2013/ Fig 2: An image of Prezi Presentation Source: http://www.davidsibbet.com/ Advantages of Prezi 1. Prezi helps the presenter to convey the entire content of his presentation to the audience at single glance. 2. In out Zooming of the text allows the presenter to highlight certain points of the text as per the audieance’s needs. 3. The presenter can embed the information in the presenation page and can highlight it through zooming whenever he wants it 4.

We “ can run Prezi presentation along a predetermined path” as we do in a traditional linear slide presentation ( Graves, Taylor & Graves 312). Disadavantages of Prezi 1. In a limited net access surroundings it becomes difficult to utilize Prezi as it is a web-based tool. 2. The dynmic motions of the Prezi sometimes make the people feel dizzy. When the presenter quickly moves from one point to another, there is a possibility that audience may not keep pace with him. 3. It is difficult to manipulate as compared to a traditional slide-based presentation which is easy to design with the help of available templates.

Advantages of Power Point 1. It is easy to handle and the presenter has just to put his text or material on the slides the reset is already done for him by the program. 2. It uses multiple colors and graphics. 3. It allows to add hyperlinks on a slide 4. It can be uploaded on web with the help of programs like slideshare. 5. Handouts can be printed easily and shared with many persons. Disadvantages 1. It is not as dynamic as Prezi 2. It creates a sense of monotony 3. Zooming options are not available 4.

Not easily integrated into web David Wicks who worked as a director of instructional technology at Seattle Pacific University is a strong exponent of this technology and has elucidated through videos and lectures different features of Prezi. He has also highlighted the difference between the two programs and has come up with certain points which have been mentioned in the table given below. Table 1 : Difference between Prezi and Power Point by David Wicks ( 2012). Conclusion To conclude we can say that Prezi through its dynamism seems to have an edge over Power Point but the traditional attachment and sense of ease with Power Point due to its user friendliness defuses that advantage of Prezi.

On the other Power Point by offering multiple printing options becomes a favorite choice for the academia who may need notes or handouts as a complement to a Power Point Presentation. Non Linearity and Zooming options make it a good choice for business presentations where the ultimate goal is the style of presentation not the content. In a Web 2.0 or 3.0 era Prezi seems to be future tool which will have superiority over Power Point. Works Cited Graves, Heather, Karen Taylor, and Roger Graves.

A Strategic Guide to Technical Communication. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2012. Print. "Prezi vs. PowerPoint." OOLONG PRESENTATIONS Prezi vs PowerPoint Comments. N.p., 04 June 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2013. .