When I first started my experience with writing online, I had little to no experience. Sure, I had a Tumblr account, but I hardly ever uploaded any of my own work. I just liked looking at people’s art, photos, and writing. After posting a few blogs, people started asking me about my site. Basically, conversations went from “How’s your cashier job?” to, “What post will you be writing next?”. This is when I knew I had to give running a website a proper chance.
As I looked into web hosts, I started to get the hang of WordPress, and I began to create with intent. All the while, it was still something I loved to do. Was I able to quit my full-time job the second I started my website? Absolutely not. Many people can be overnight success stories, but I simply am not one of them. However, this did lead me to my job as a writer for a Montreal-based media company. To this day, I am still so thankful that they happened to come across my website and offered me a spot on their team.
Fast forward 7 years, and I have learned a lot. From formatting and article creation, to link building and customer satisfaction; working for Twenty West Media is one of the best writing experiences I’ve had. Luckily, having this become my career didn’t have an effect on how much I love writing. I didn’t lose my love for the written word just because it was now considered my “job”. Instead, I strive to learn as much as I can, provide quality work, and make clients happy!
When I first started my website, part of the learning process for me, was the graphics aspect.
I usually just used one of the photos from the post as my cover photo. Sometimes, the photos I had to choose from were… well, they simply weren’t good (and that’s putting it nicely). Did it bother me? Absolutely. However, had I gone to school for graphic art or computer science? No. I just wanted to run a website; not call myself the next Susan Kare!
This was no excuse. I had to do something about how I was presenting my articles. I needed to work on how I presented my work, my passion… me. Thankfully, I discovered a few programs that were of use. They helped me just enough so that I didn’t feel like I was using Microsoft Word fonts. It had been perfect for what I needed at that time.
“Change is the only constant in life.” – Heraclitus of Ephesus
One thing I appreciate more and more, is the fact that learning never ends. Even if we were able to live for hundreds of years, there would always be something new to learn about. I find this to be inspiring. It’s also the reason why I have a thousand different pins on Pinterest. Don’t judge me; I just like trying new ideas!
When I heard about Visme, I knew I had to learn more about it and see what it had to offer.
What is Visme?
Visme is an all-in-one content creation tool. It empowers individuals and organizations to quickly create and share beautiful content they can be proud. Whether it’s in the form of engaging presentations, infographics, documents, videos, or graphics, people with with little to no design skills can use it! Did that last bit get your attention? I thought so.
“Think Powerpoint… but more intuitive and scalable.
Think Prezi and Infogram… but more flexible and versatile.“
As those at Visme like to say, it’s made for non-designers but still powerful enough for graphic designers. It combines simplicity, flexibility and interactive features within a single platform. There’s no need to use several different programs and platforms to make one creation. With Visme, everything users need is in one easy-to-use interface and you can create your content right in your browser.
Another major advantage? You can use it online and offline. Publish, share online, or download for offline use.
Publish online, make it private, embed to a site or download for offline use- it’s up to you! I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have wished I was able to work on (good quality) projects offline. If you’re a commuter who takes public transportation, I’m sure you can relate.
Yes, you’d like to use your commute for “down” time, but what about the days when things don’t go according to plan? Last minute meetings, a change to a deadline- it’s in these moments that you may want to go over your material.
What if you can do your work on your commute home? That way, you can leave work at the office, and be fully “clocked out”. Maybe being able to make a quick edit to the smallest detail of a presentation can lead you to a big promotion. Being able to make such edits, without worrying about whether or not the internet will be working can take away so much stress!
Sharing Your Content Online
Download Your Content to Use Offline
Who is Visme for?
- Bloggers (like myself), are using it to create static graphics or interactive presentations and infographics. Having visual support for text content is known to increase engagement with audiences.
- Educators and students are using it to improve communication on various topics.
- Small businesses and organizations are using it to better engage and market their products/services to their target audience. As you can see, anyone and anyone can benefit from using Visme.
Users can start from a preset of professional templates. They can also start from a blank canvas and create their own content, fully personalized to their specific needs. As someone who creates all of her graphics, i.e. blog cover photos etc. I really appreciate being able to add my own touch, taste, flair. Sometimes I see other posts and I find myself saying “This would be perfect for me, if….” That “if” is what sets me apart from other sites. It’s important to have your own presence online. Copying someone else would only get you so far. Have fun! Create something as unique as you are!
I already use Canva, and I know my way around Powerpoint. Why would I need Visme?
I grew up using PowerPoint for school, and Canva later on in life for work. It’s completely understandable if you want to stick with what you know. You’re comfortable with these other programs and you know you’re way around them. No one is denying that this is a great start! You should be proud of accomplishing what you have, with what you’ve been given.
Nevertheless, the world moves quickly. New ideas, programs, guidelines, technology- the list goes on when it comes to the advancements that are made each day. More on the differences between Visme and your favorite programs can be read here:
What’s the difference between Visme and Powerpoint?
What’s the difference between Visme and Canva?
What’s the difference between Visme and Venngage?
What’s the difference between Visme and Beautiful.ai?
With Visme, they are using the tools that have been proven to work, and are integrating the newer technology and the newer ideas as they are released. Things seem to change in the blink of an eye, and Visme is dedicated to staying up to date with the trends as they happen to provide each user with the tools they need.
Visme is also the only tool that allows you to create various forms of content as simple graphics but with series of interactive features. This enables static content to come to life. For example:
- Ability to animate any object and assign actions (ex. Links, pop-ups, rollovers; image on the left)
- Add video or audio
- Embed content from third parties (ex.
- Maps, polls, forms, etc..)
- Set your own templates and brand guidelines
- Ability to track traffic and engagement of your content (full analytics)
- Create your own library of slides and content, and media library.
- Team Collaboration with comments and markup edits
Create all forms of visual content in one place— including videos!
Not all of us have the experience of a designer. We also don’t have an unlimited amount of hours available to create infographics, presentations, or visual content in general. This is why Visme was created with the intention of being extremely easy to use.
Every idea, project, and presentation deserves to be visualized. You know me and my love for the art of words. Stories should be able to have the power of visual design, animation and interactivity, if the storyteller wishes for it to be this way. Visme wants to help facilitate this into being a reality.
Visme is used for other several forms of content. As a freelance writer, I write about a variety of topics. This means, that on any given day, I may need to become an expert in a field I know almost nothing about. It’s empowering to know that I am able to easily add my own graphics to show the data I find throughout my research with their Graphs and Charts Maker!
This tool is also amazing for students. Take a second to think back to your high school math class. Or, perhaps your college/university courses. Maybe you specialized in an area of social studies or mathematics. Personally speaking, quantitative methods was a mandatory class for me. I needed to do well in order to graduate! Do you know how many times I wish I had a scatter plot maker?
Even now as a freelance writer, I use data compiled from different sources to back up my research. I also use Twitter and Facebook polls to do audience research. All of these things are in turn, vital for marketing my brand. Visme makes it easy to publish survey results, which is incredibly handy, no matter what profession you may have.
Like most online professionals, I also use social media as a way to create a following. Being able to easily incorporate social media graphics into posts, projects, and presentations, is crucial! If I am ever at a live event for the purpose of helping a company build brands awareness, having physical forms of advertisement with me is extremely helpful.
In the age of technology, it’s not often people have the time or patience to stop and chat for long periods of time. Being able to pass out a unique flyer for them to look at, (maybe even at a later time), will help you stand out from the crowd. Or, if the event is passing out goody bags/party favors, slip one of your fliers in the bag! It’s an easy and quick way to add your own touch, and to be remembered, at any event.
“It sounds great; it must be too expensive for me.”
Visme is free for all users; it takes just a few seconds to register and start creating your first project. Most features are free.
Some of the other features, such as downloading projects for offline use, password protection, access to premium widgets and templates, are available for an affordable fees starting at $14/month when paid yearly (or $25/month when paid monthly).
What is unique about Visme?
There are various presentation and infographics tools online. Many are too difficult to use! Or, they have a steep learning curve. Some may have limited features with various restrictions. Restrictions that prevent users from creating content that serves their specific needs and helps their content stand out.
Visme is the only application that allows full capacity to create powerful and real presentations and infographics from one app and one learning curve. It also takes things one step further allowing one to add interactivity to projects by adding video, audio and even third party widgets to embed to projects (to name a few).
Its interface is so intuitive that users feel right at home after a few minutes of use. Its easy-to-use features and tools make traditional tools feel complex and outdated.
Now, Visme has opened up the ability for users to create video (MP4) and animated GIFs.
Rather than spending money on additional tools to produce presentation videos, or social media videos and GIFs, Visme users can centralize all content formats in one place with one universal interface.
Visme is different because:
- It does more than just create one type of content. It’s the multi-tool of visual content: Great for both Infographics and Presentations. View: Charts and Reports
- Requires no coding or design experience
- It’s intuitive and easy-to-use yet balanced, with a range of features and flexibility to personalize content that meets brand guidelines. Any brand knows how important it is to be available on social media, these social media graphics are perfect for this.
- End-to-end presentation creation with a vast library of thousands of ready to use design templates and slides. Plus, the ability to animate and apply interactivity to presentations in seconds. I really wish that I had some of these for when I was in school. Visme’s timeline maker would’ve been AMAZING for History Class.
- It’s fully HTML5-based, so content is both web and mobile friendly.
- It allows users to download content in all popular formats: Web URL, Image, PDF, editable PPTx, HTML5, MP4 video, and GIF.
- It allows users to add interactivity and animation to any object.
- Ability to attach music / audio to your project and record own audio within Visme
Several Benefits
Visme allows users to access millions of assets right within the application. From text widgets and animated text, to millions of searchable images and thousands of high-quality vector icons (most of which being editable to your brand colors) in over 25 categories; there are tons of graphic assets for every type of project.
Recent Launch: Animated Graphics
500+ customizable animated illustrations, characters and gestures that can be dragged and dropped into any projects were recently launched.
These animated graphics are one-of-a-kind, built in-house by Visme’s graphic experts exclusive to Visme. You will not find them in any other content tool. This alone helps you stand out.
Remember how many times you saw this paperclip friend, Clippy, in presentations? This won’t be happening with thanks to Visme (unless you want to include it, that is).
Their characters are fully customizable with over a dozen poses, changeable skin color to support diversity, and with users having the flexibility to apply their brand colors.
Blocks of Content
While you can insert individual objects into Visme, you can also tap into a library of suggested content (on the left panel under “Basics” tab in editor). This allows you to quickly locate and drag-and-drop groups of complementary content to create your design.
Users can even create their own blocks (more about this here), which can be used in future projects across any format under “My Content” within the “Basics” tab in the editor.
New Templates & Themes
The new Visme offers users hundreds of new design templates with endless options for any creator.
Presentations
Most presentation tools provide you with a set of presentation templates. This is how Visme started (they’re now called “Legacy templates”).
The majority of people would say that they would want to access more slides than the average presentation template provides. For example, why have one agenda slide design when you can have 20?
This was the basis of launching a vast library of custom slides (over 900) within twenty presentation slide categories. Their Modern style has been featured for a couple of years, and they now have two new designs: Simple, and Creative.
New: Conversational Presenting
Published presentation projects now have a new navigation feature allowing presenters the flexibility and conversational presenting they need today. More and more often, we’re seeing a more “relaxed” approach to meetings than we’d see in let’s say, the 1990’s. This is not to be confused with saying they aren’t as professional! There are simply more reasons for presenters to feel at ease. With tools like
The new drop-up menu allows a presenter full access to any slide in their presentation instantly. Users can still use the linear slide-by-slide navigation, but now, if a presenter wants to skip ahead to a future slide or revert back to a previous slide, this drop-up menu gives presenters full control of their presentation.
Infographics
Not only can you access hundreds of beautiful, custom-built infographic templates; but you can also now start from a blank canvas and access a large library of content blocks, which you can stack on top of each other.
These block can be easily adapted to your content and rearranged with one click to build your own custom infographic in minutes not hours.
Create everything!
Visme users still have all of the content types they’ve needed before: Presentations, Infographics, Document, Printatables, Web and Social graphics, and Custom sizes. And soon, Visme will also feature a project category for Videos!
Manage your Branding
Although Visme provides tons of fonts, a large icon and graphic library, we also allow you to manage and set your own branding requirements.
You can upload your own fonts, set your own templates, add your logo for published content, and even set your own brand colors. Learn more here.
Teams can deactivate the ability for their users to select different fonts, colors and design templates outside of their brand guidelines, as well. Giving managers and administrators the peace of mind knowing that their brand standards are being met by everyone using Visme.
Full Animation Engine
Visme utilizes a powerful yet easy-to-use animation engine. Virtually any object can be animated with a couple clicks. Simply click on an object, and you can apply an animation preset from the “Animate this Object’ button.
You will also be able to go to an objects list. Here, you can view the position of objects with respect to each other on an animation timeline and adjust to your liking.
In the new, upgraded version of Visme, everything runs off one timeline. This includes infographic widgets and audio, allowing for seamless control. This way, every animated object will appear on the same timeline.
Fonts
Visme has over 120 professional fonts that can be applied to virtually all text objects. Simply drag and drop a text onto the stage. Click on the font drop-down menu to select from a variety of fonts in all popular styles.
From contemporary to handwritten, calligraphy or even typewriter, there are a variety of styles to satisfy any project need. Users can also change parts of a text. For example, they can apply a font/style to a single word and maintain a different font/style in the rest of the text block.
Text Editing with Visme
Highlight portions of text and apply custom styling specifically to that content. You can now highlight words or phrases within a text block and apply styling while maintaining the rest of the content’s formatting intact.
This is such a handy tool- I use it all the time! With other programs, even if you highlight/select a specific portion to alter, (rather than changing the complete line of text), the entire text gets changed anyway. It drives me bonkers. If there’s ever a way to avoid it, I use it.
In the former Visme text editor, it was not possible to have different fonts in the same text block. The new version provides further flexibility by allowing the use of multiple fonts and styles within the same block, reducing the number of layers needed to achieve the same effect.
Copy to slides
Copy multiple objects from one slide to another slide versus doing them one by one. This is very useful for users who want to copy a specific set of object(s) versus duplicating an entire slide.
Lock/unlock objects
Easily lock and unlock objects. Tired of that large image/shape behind your smaller object getting selected? Right click to launch the contextual menu and lock the object or apply other effects.
Global Color Palette
A color applied to an object or text will be saved into a global color library so it can easily be applied elsewhere. Every time you create a new color, it will be added to your global library so you can reuse it in the rest of your project.
Audio Engine (Feature)
One of the most requested features is the ability to upload your own audio MP3 files. Visme provides a fantastic library of audio tracks that can be attached to one slide (for presentations) or used as background music for an entire project.
You can even record your own audio, attach it and manage the timing and fade controls from one panel.
Shared Library
Reuse images from other projects, which are all stored in a shared library.
Charts
Visme also offers powerful data visualization capabilities through a series of Infographics and Chart Widget tools. This would’ve been so handy for my economics and math classes!
Data widgets allow one to quickly turn simple data and numbers into dynamic, easier to understand visuals. From a speedometer to counters, ribbons and radial dials, each widget allows users to fully customize the data to display specific values.
The Chart widget offers seven variations of data representation in the form of pie charts, bar and linear graphs. It simplifies the data visualization process to the point of enabling users to generate charts within seconds. Users can also import spreadsheet data and generate a chart on the fly from the imported data.
New chart types and the ability to compare sets of data.
Doughnut-shaped charts and scatter plots are some of the newest additions to what is available. With non-circular charts, you can use series of data in order to compare values against each other.
Do you want to add beautiful interactivity to your charts? By default, all charts are animated so when you load them, you can see them form into the final design. You can also turn off animation via a simple on/off value under Settings.
Create a Graph Online in 5 Easy Steps
How to Create a Chart From Start to Finish
For Teams and Companies
Visme also has full team plans allowing multiple people to access and share projects with each other and set permissions and roles. Learn more here.
What Stood Out To Me
One of the first things I noticed when I started to use Visme, was how organized it is. If anyone knows me, they know how I love to stay organized. Desk calendars, color coding, highlighters, binders, organizers- just mentioning it makes me want to clean. This is probably why my instant first reaction was to how organized and tidy the layout is.
It is clean, organized, and easy to navigate. I need to stay on top of several different projects at a time as a freelance writer. With the integrated sidebar, Visme makes staying organized so easy. It’s definitely one of my favorite aspects!
What’s Next?
New categories of content, more interactivity and more templates and assets.
Visme’s mission is to empower non-designers to create and share content they can be proud of. You can check out their official blog for tips and articles for how to design beautiful content.
