The new kids on the block that you might not have heard of...

Those of you on the ball will know that neither are new, but have you really explored what different presentation tools can do for you?

Apple released Keynote publicly in 2003 and is their answer to presentation software. Clean, smooth and more design focussed. Keynote eliminates words and focuses on visuals and transitions to ease the flow of your presenting.

Made famous by Steve Jobs (Co founder of Apple). If you look at his Keynote examples they are simple, bold, image focussed yet affective in their delivery.

I feel it’s important to know what else is out there when it comes to presentation software. Sometimes the best ideas are the ideas presented in a dynamic and engaging way. Presenting off Keynote or Prezi is a way of grabbing the attention of your audience, before you’ve even said ‘hello’.

Mix it up, be confident in what you are trying to relay to your audience and it’s not as hard as you may think. If a student travelling on a National Express bus from London to Cheltenham can do it (me in 2011), so can you.

On the topic of user-friendly software, the next presentation website I wanted to bring to your attention is Prezi. You’re probably thinking that you’ve heard of it but not sure how it works. Prezi released in 2009, is a zooming style presentation interface. Instead of slides, users zoom in and out of the page creating stories often with short sharp sentences coming to the end goal in less than 10 ‘zooms’.

It all fundamentally comes down to storytelling, the type of presentation you are doing (formal or informal) and how many key out-takes you want to voice to your audience.

Lastly and essentially, it also boils down to what device you have. If you have a Mac that’s great you have best of both worlds. If not, setting up an account on Prezi is easy and the templates are endless.