Using Prezi.com for Genealogy

     Yesterday I posted a genealogy timeline that I created using Prezi.com. My sister, who is a student teacher, showed me an awesome US History presentation she had created for her class and I immediately wanted to create something of my own.

     As stated on their website:

"At Prezi, we're all about helping people understand each other better. Presentations have not evolved much in the 50 years since the slide was invented, but Prezi is changing that. Prezi lets you bring your ideas into one space and see how they relate, helping you and your audience connect. Zoom out to see the big picture and zoom in to see details — a bit like web-based maps that have changed how we navigate through map books."

     Pretty much, this is an online program that takes a powerpoint style presentation to a whole new level. Instead of simple, individual slides, prezi allows users to create dynamic, twisting presentations that can do things that made me say "wow."

     I signed up for the free student/teacher edition using my college email address. Otherwise there are both free and paid accounts. The differences in the accounts are mainly based on storage and privacy.

     Prezi is pretty easy to use, but does take some experimenting to get used to using. Mainly you create an element using the control panel on the top left and then edit it using the control curser, called a "zebra" (it's got lots of "stripes"). Here's a screenshot of the "canvas" where you create your prezi:

     You can place text, photos, videos, etc onto a canvas space however you want: upside down, sideways, etc, then determine what size you want it to be. You then create a path between each element that will be followed when you present the presentation. You can create your own color scheme or use a pre-created one. When you're done, you can download the prezi or embed it in a blog or website.

     I would like to see some additional features. You can add 'shapes', but all you have are circles, shaded squares, arrows and brackets of one basic design. When you choose a color scheme, it applies to all of that type of element in your prezi. You can print to PDF, but it automatically sizes to fit on a 8x10 page with no apparent option for larger sizes.

     Overall, I think this is a great tool for creating family history slideshows. Think of how you could use this to explain the family tree at a reunion. Or perhaps a presentation to your local genealogical society?

     Here's the presentation that my sister created for her class:

WWII Timeline on Prezi

How to get more from the GA Archive's Virtual Vault

A wonderful website that I've mentioned before is the Georgia Virtual Vault at the Georgia Archive website. There's are a whole lot of free digitized records available online for genealogists.

The amount of content can be a bit of a hindrance though. Many of the records are not indexed, or have only an image of an original index. Finding these records can be time consuming and difficult to find a second time. Well, don't search - save it. Researchers can use the "Favorite" function to save their documents so that they don't have to search for them again. You can even make a webpage out of the documents. Just make sure that your browser is accepting cookies and you're ready to go.

When you find a document, you will see a few options along the top of the image, just above the toolbar. These options include "Add Document to Favorites" and "Add Page to Favorites." In most cases, you'll want to save the page, not the document. If you save the document, you'll have to re-find the image from the entire collection again - and what's the point of that?

Now, view your favorites page, by clicking the link at the top of the page. You can see all of the documents that you've saved and have a few options of what you'd like to do with them. You can create a slideshow, re-arange or remove them, or create a webpage with them.

I saved my documents as a "page source/html" and I simply upload the document to my web host and, voila - I can share my favorite documents from the GA Virtual Vault. See it here. But what is the benefit of a webpage like this?

Well, for me, it's about having all of your documents right there for to find, linked to their original source, in a way that can be presented to others. Sure, I go ahead and download a copy of the image, but sometimes I miss the source information or make a mistake. Or perhaps the file disappears or becomes corrupt. Because I've created these favorites I can go right back to the document with it's original source without having to search for it. Also, I can very easily share my finds with others.

I really think this is a great way for the GA Archive to share their documents in a way that preserves their historical context and help with source citation. I'm looking forward to using this tool more thoroughly in the future.

Some improvements I'd like to see: the ability to rename a document and the ability to organize favorites into folders or sets.