Power Point presentations are now a thing of the past
As presentations have become part of everyone’s academic and business life, it is inevitable that they have evolved over the years, and that Power Point presentations have now been replaced by many more successful, creative versions available on the Internet.
Many advanced versions require a certain budget, while some of them you can use for free and create with them very individual, successful presentations that will attract the attention of your professors, colleagues, associates, whomever… In this way your skills such as creativity, entrepreneurship and even visual manipulation will undoubtedly come to the point and you will thus achieve better success in a very simple and easy way.
Below you may check on some of free online platforms for creating impressive presentations:
CANVA
Currently, the most popular free platform for creating a wide variety of content, from social media posts, greeting cards, posters, to presentations, is Canva.
Log in to this site via your Google account, email or Facebook account and use already created templates for free, which you can then manually change (in terms of colours, fonts) by adding some stickers, photos, charts for the content of your work (i.e., presentation).
Creating a presentation after logging in is very simple: go to the templates section, then click on business button and find the presentation section there. By clicking on it you will get dozens of great patterns. With another click on the chosen template you will get another customize this template button that takes you directly to presentation editing.
Here you can choose stickers, colours, fonts, add certain words or pictures and combine different frames from the offered presentation patterns. The advantage of the Canva is easy-handling, a multitude of tools and saving the presentation in PDF form which is ideal for reading. On the other hand, you can save it as a video or present it directly from the site by clicking the present button.
If you are having a hard time with programs like this, the tutorial below will help you to master it easily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoXtr57EM80
PREZI
Another great site for a free presentation creation is Prezi. These presentations, we must admit, are very modern and specific, as they provide a very creative movement through the slides (the presentation here allows even a virtual movement through the image). Login is as simple as in Canva, followed by a simple navigation: Prezi present (menu in the left part), then a plus button followed by the offered forms. After clicking to one of them, the button use of this template follows (naming, choosing who can watch it (in the case of free registration, all users are allowed to watch your Prezi, which is perhaps the only drawback)) and finally, it comes the editing.
Unlike the Canva, Prezi does not have such a huge range of possibilities (but it still offers the possibility of inserting video clips, stickers, photos etc.). As in Canva, there is a present button that allows you to present to the public just by logging onto the site.
Link to site: https://prezi.com/dashboard/next/
VISME
Just like Canva and Prezi, the Visme site offers the ability to create free online presentations and a handful of forms that you can use. Easy navigation, the ability to choose a presentation based on interests and creative solutions certainly present some of the advantages of this platform. This site is very clear and offers you almost all the possibilities (charts, pictures, titles, videos) in one order and very vividly presented, so its use is perhaps the simplest and the most practical to the beginners.
It is only important to choose the desired pattern, devise a strategy and start creating by following step-by-step navigation on the left hand side.
Link to site: https://www.visme.co/
SLIDES CARNIVAL
If you are a fan of old but gold Power Point, but you want some new ideas or patterns to apply in it, the Slides Carnival site is a great solution for you. This site offers you over 200 forms that someone has previously applied, which you can download and simply insert into your document and just change the data.
All it takes is to download your form, to select one by pressing Go to preview and download button and then the red Power Point button. Once the form is downloaded, it will be opened directly in the Power Point and you can access its editing.
Link to site: https://www.slidescarnival.com/
A short guide to making a successful presentation:
In order to make it easier for you to create and place the most successful presentations, we bring you the basic steps that should be considered:
1. Collect all the necessary material (photos, videos, text). Type text, save images and videos to a folder, and store everything at one place. You can also name items in order to make it easier for you to find them later on.
2. Devise a presentation strategy, write on a piece of paper what you want to find in the introduction, what in the body, and what in the conclusion. You can also distribute your material to three separate folders, but under these names.
3. The presentation should contain only short phrases, those words that will only guide you through it and remind you what you need to say. Long sentences are distracting and very confusing for any presentation.
4. Use as many templates and photos as you want, because these will attract attention and visually portray your theme.
5. Pieces of information must go in certain order (chronologically) and complement each other just like a story. Let your story have an action, plot, unfolding, sometimes you can use metaphors, but also your public appearance (gestures, volume, emphasis), and try to highlight (bold) the most important parts of information.
6. Make the introduction striking, interesting and intriguing – try to attract attention and draw interest of your audience with the first sentence (whether it is an interesting fact, question, news).
7. Follow rules 10, 20, 30.
This interesting rule was devised by the marketing expert Guy Kawasaki, and it refers to the fact that the presentation should contain a maximum of 10 slides, should last up to 20 minutes and should have the minimum font size of 30.
8. Create a slide at the end with question Do you have any questions? As well as the slide Thank you for your attention. This seems very polite and provokes interaction, which is very important. These two slides should not be counted as part of the content (those maximum 10), but as add-ons!
9. As for the public presentation to be taken by yourself, try not to make your movements chaotic, but also do not be stiff and keep your hands in your pockets. Speak clearly and loudly and look your interlocutors straight to their eyes.
10. If you suffer from anxiety, practice your presentation a couple of days prior to its execution. When you are well prepared and know what to say next, you won’t be confused and thus your anxiety will decrease.
