Prezi’s advantage over static slides is that its interactive, zoomable canvas shows the relationship between the big picture and the fine details. The vendor’s value proposition is that this puts ideas in context, and makes them more likely to resonate, motivate, and be remembered.
$3
per month
Vellum
Score 6.0 out of 10
N/A
Vellum is a publishing tool by 180g, that enables users to create ebooks for every platform: Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, etc. Each specialized file can guide readers to buy the writer's next book in their favorite store. Vellum is currently available for Mac.
I believe Prezi is well suited when an author wants to create a more compelling presentation. It is also most useful when using it to explain processes, flows, and/or other visual elements. From another perspective, when it is necessary to create something more quickly, Prezi may not be the right solution, when compared to PowerPoint, for example. There are nice templates, but the creation process may not be so fast and simple.
Vellum is perfect for novels, novellas, short fiction anthologies, and any lightly illustrated fiction. It’s excellent for most non-fiction. It’s great for e-Books and Paperbacks. I haven’t tried using the file for hardcover but it is likely good for that as well. Vellum wouldn’t be the right tool for coffee-table art books, picture books or children’s illustrated books.
Prezi can provides a literal "big picture" view of the presentation content. This helps the audience understand what the presentation is ultimately all about.
Prezi is anything but bland. It animates the content and makes it feel like you are "in" the material.
Prezi presentations can incorporate video, images, text and more. There are many options to present content to an audience.
Hard to create something quick and simple, so even after we gained experience we still had a hard time using it to deliver a presentation overnight.
Can be slow to load a presentation, so we always setup 5-10 minutes before our actual presentation time and made sure everything is loaded and ready to go.
Could improve ability to change the look of a design element like Ornamental Break.
Doesn’t currently output in Smashwords .doc format (but does EPUB).
Spell Check is rudimentary but accurate - still, it’s much better to use Word or Grammarly.
If style uses initial drop cap, it doesn’t handle one-letter words well (I, A, O) - repeats letter in sentence. This may be standard practice, not sure.
There are a couple dozen styles. I would gladly pay for a “Style Pack” to add on additional styles.
Learning to use Prezi and create new presentations is very simple and easy to do. It does not require new skills or a long training process, since in general the use is quite intuitive (and if you have any questions there are many videos on how to use it). Its operation in both the browser version and the app is very good and fluid, managing to perform all the tasks you want properly.
It is a modern and easy-to-use tool (after a while) that allows you to make dynamic and trained presentations without the need to be an expert user. It has allowed me to improve the attention and motivational processes of my students. In addition, it has many [community users] who make videos and teach the many uses that you can use Prezi. And because, despite the restrictions of the free version, everyone can access and make use of Prezi and thus improve their boring ppt and inject some vitality into them.
We also tried Powerpoint and Visio to prepare hierarchical presentations, but it was not as easy, and it was kind of difficult to edit. Prezi provided built-in zoom-pan animation, which made it easier. Also, there were many samples from the Prezi community that one could learn from. Finally, Prezi Classic was free and there was not any limitation in using the free version.
Up until purchasing Vellum, I’ve used Smashwords Meat Grinder template and Kindle’s PC-Only software. I had to buy a PC just to publish to Kindle - very expensive investment with modest return. Vellum is only for Mac. In fact, it would have been cool if it worked with a PC. But Mac is my ecosystem for writing, and the PC is a pain. I ultimately chose Vellum because it works with my MacBook.
