One of the key differences between PowerPoint and Prezi is that the former is for producing linear presentations, while the latter lets you zoom in and out of points of detail. However, if you’re more au fait with PowerPoint but want to achieve Prezi’s interactive effect, today’s your lucky day!
Step 1: Design an Overview Slide
The first step to achieving a PowerPoint presentation that works like Prezi is to create an overview slide containing the background for all the points of interest that will form the interactivity later on.
In my example, my overview slide contains a map of the US, as my aim is to display various landmarks that the person interacting with my presentation can click to find out more details. At this point, you can also add any further text—like instructions to help your viewer understand how your graphic works—but generally keep the overview slide as minimal as possible.
Your overview slide doesn’t have to be a map. For example, it could be a timeline, a photograph, a floor plan, or anything that contains details that people might want to click to find out more.
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Step 2: Create Thumbnail Slides
Now that you have your overview slide, it’s time to create interesting and eye-catching thumbnail slides that will sit on the overview to provide more detail when clicked.
Staying with my map of the US, I have added new slides containing information on the Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge, and other landmarks.
Later, mini-versions of these slides will sit on the map in the overview slide, ready to be clicked and expanded. Don’t create too many of these information thumbnail slides—otherwise, your overview slide might end up being too overcrowded.
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Step 3: Add the Thumbnail Slides to the Overview Slide
When you’ve finished creating the thumbnail slides containing more information, you’re ready to add these to your overview slide.
First, head back to your overview slide, and in the Insert tab on the ribbon, click “Zoom,” then “Slide Zoom.”
Next, check the checkboxes of all slides except for the overview slide, and click Insert. This will add thumbnails to your overview slide.
Now, reposition and resize the thumbnails on your overview slide as appropriate. The key here is to make sure your viewer can see the thumbnail headings and primary pictures. If you make the thumbnails too small, they’ll lose their effect. Also, for consistency, try to keep all your thumbnails the same size.
Step 4: Enable “Return To Slide”
At the top of this guide, I talked about PowerPoint being a program that lets you present slides in a linear fashion. In other words, after displaying slide 1, it moves onto slide 2, then slide 3, and so on.
As a result, at the moment, if you press F5 to test whether your zoom effect works, you’ll notice that PowerPoint is keen to run the slides in order after you’ve clicked the first thumbnail. So, now, you need to activate a setting that takes you back to the overview slide after you’ve finished reading one of the information slides.
To do this, head to your overview slide, and click the first thumbnail slide. Then, in the Zoom tab on the ribbon, check “Return To Zoom.”
Now, repeat this process for each thumbnail on your overview slide. Unfortunately, at the time of writing (March 2025), it’s not possible to activate this option for several thumbnail slides at the same time, so you need to adjust the settings for each one individually.
This crucial step means that now, after an information slide is opened via the overview slide, when it’s clicked again, it returns to the overview slide.
Add some text to your information slides that instructs the reader to click anywhere to return to the overview slide.
Step 5: Test Your Swanky Graphics
The final step is to check that everything works as expected. Press F5 to begin the presentation from the start. Then, click a thumbnail slide, read the information it contains, and click anywhere to return to the overview slide.
Here’s how mine looks so far. Now, I want to add more landmarks to make my map fully interactive!
In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can use lots of different tools to create exciting effects. For example, combine 3D models and the morph transition to create stunning visuals, and add bookmarks to video and audio to trigger animations while your media plays.
