Canva is a ridiculously awesome and FREE design program that entrepreneurs everywhere are using to create social media images, brochures, even logos and entire slideshow presentations. But let’s face it… it’s not the most intuitive program in the world, and the tutorials leave a lot of business owners scratching their heads. So you may have tried Canva and gotten stuck, or you may be using it regularly for a few basic things. But I bet there is a whole bunch of stuff you can do in Canva that you didn’t even know about. Here are my 3 favorite (and most surprising) Canva tips:
1. You can change Canva’s pre-designed templates to suit your brand and your needs
I hear this all the time: “Canva seems cool, but the templates don’t match my brand.” Well let me just bust that myth right now. Every single element of every single template can be changed. So if you like the layout, but the colors are all wrong, you can change the colors! You see a cute baby shower invite, but you’re planning a wild bachelorette party, change the wording, and swap the bottles for martinis! Every template can be edited to feature your colors, your fonts, your wording, your photos, and your favorite illustrations.
2. Almost every Canva template is free, even if you see the $ in the corner!
This is the most mind-blowing one for people. We’re scrolling through templates and we see, “free, free, $, $, $, $, $, $…” and think, “Well shit, all the good templates cost money!” Au contraire mon ami–that little $ in the corner just means there’s some paid element being used in that template. And you can swap it out! It’s almost always the stock photo they’re using. You were going to replace that with your own photo, anyway. Sometimes the paid element is an illustration, a frame, or a line. You can replace those, too! Once you get rid of any paid elements in a template, your final design will be free to download. To find out which parts of the template cost money, click the little “i” in the corner and a list of included elements will pop up.
3. Save time by making templates to use over and over (without upgrading to Canva Pro)
The paid upgrade version of Canva (Canva Pro) has some cool features, including saving your designs as templates to streamline your workflow. But you don’t HAVE to upgrade to Canva Pro to make your own templates if you follow this little hack: Create a design and name it something like “Social Media Quote Template.” Then save it. With the free version of Canva, you get two folders for organizing your designs, so name one of these “templates” and move the design over there! Now you can head there and click “copy” to make a copy of your design when you want to make a new design featuring different content!
Bonus pro tip: Save yourself some clutter, by copying the design right inside your template! There’s a little icon that looks like two rectangles next to your design–that makes a new “page” of your design, but it all stays in the same file. You can make a whole month’s worth of graphics and download them all at once! SUCH a time saver.
And these tips just scratch the surface! There’s so much you can do in Canva, and they keep adding features all the time. Create your free Canva account or sign up for a 30-day free trial of Canva Pro right here.
And if you want to master Canva in under an hour, check out my Canva Crash Course! Learn how to use Canva in just a few minutes a day for 5 days, or binge the whole course in an hour! Click here to join.
Did you learn something new about Canva today? I want to know! Leave a comment below to tell me which tip is your favorite!
Want to learn more about Canva?
My FREE Canva Crash Course will teach you how to design like a pro!
In this free, step-by-step course, you'll learn learn how to...
- Customize templates and change colors
- Upload photos and find free stock photos
- Edit text and fonts
- Use icons and illustrations
- Create dynamic designs with shapes and lines.
The next round starts January 22nd!
Fantastic. It never occurred to me to edit a template with the $ sign because I didn’t realise you could just remove the paid element! Genius.
Yay! I’m so glad you learned something new!
Mind blown! Thankyou
Yay! You’re so welcome!
Thanks Emily! I didn’t know 2or 3! I’ve done your course awhile ago and now use Canva all the time- love it!!!!
I’m so glad you loved the course and that you learned something new today!!!
Fantastic tips, especially the tip about taking out the paid elements! Thanks!
Yay! I’m so glad you loved the tips! 😀