Start using these Canva hacks to speed up your workflow
Time is your most valuable resource when you are trying to build a business with kids under your feet.
If you are already a regular Canva user, then these tips are going to speed up your workflow so that you can get far more done in less time.
And if you don’t yet use Canva, then you’re going to start out knowing far more than most beginners. Let’s get to it.
Canva Hack 1: Smart Mockups
If you have ever seen those fun images of digital products that actually look like a real book or are on someone’s phone and you wondered if you could create that – You can! Let me show you how.
- Go here to Apps on the left.
- Choose Smart Mockups. If you don’t see it here in your left sidebar, you can simply search for Smart Mockups.
- Choose the mockup that you want to use. You can choose from trending mockups, new mockups, categories, smartphones, desktops, laptops, tablets, watches, TV screens, e-readers, print, packaging, apparel, home, and living – all sorts of things are going to come up.
I’m going to start with technology and I am going to choose e-readers. I want it to look like someone is reading my e-book. So I’m going to click on this image here. I can select either an image that I already have on my computer or a design that I’ve created inside of Canva Pro. I’m going to choose Select. I can choose Uploads or Designs over here on the left.
I’m going to choose Designs and my Tech Tools Toolkit. Then I’m going to select the page that I want to create the mock-up of – I’m just going to select the first page.
You can see that there is a little bit of black on the top and bottom of my image there, it didn’t quite fit perfectly inside the e-reader so I can choose Adjust Image. And I can make that a little bigger. And choose Save Mockup. Now I have an image that I can use on social media or on a sales page. I can also choose to use it in a completely different design inside of Canva.
Canva Hack 2: Ruler
This next tip is a great one. If you ever get frustrated with how to align things well inside of Canva, simply come up here to File > View settings and choose Show rulers and guides. It will immediately start showing this ruler up here at the top and on the left.
If I click on this image, you’ll see that ruler becomes gray about down to here. So you can see the gray area is that element. As you move it along that ruler, if you can see there on the left that gray moves around. So you can see exactly where your element is. In addition, go back to Settings and Add Guides. You can now add 12 columns, six columns, a three by three grid or anything custom that you want to.
So you can see the guides and have your design split into whatever sections you want to help you design it more efficiently.
Canva Hack 3: Tidy Up Tool
Let’s talk about the tidy up tool. This is a worksheet that I made for my kids who struggle with some mental health challenges. I could drop all these in here and it doesn’t even really matter how messy they are. I could even have one kind of on top of this and it’s all over. They’re messy, but I’ve dropped them in there.
If I click and drag, I select all of these then go to Position > choose Tidy Up.
It aligns them all directly above each other with just that one click. So super cool.
Canva Hack 4: Version History
This next one is for you if you ever hit the undo button over and over and over and over and over again. I’ve been there. Go to File > Version history and you’ll be able to see all the different versions of whatever you’re working on. You can scroll through all the various auto saves to find exactly the one that you need in just one click.
Canva Hack 5: Grid View
This next tip works really well if you’ve created a really long document with lots of pages.
There are hundreds of pages in here. It became really difficult to go find whatever it was I was trying to edit. This little button down here at the very bottom right, it looks like some stacked pages. The number will show you how many pages you have total. And when you hover over, it’s going to say Grid View. If you click on it, this is what you get.
It’s so much easier to find the page that you’re looking for. You simply double click on the page and it’ll take you right to that page that you can then edit.
As a bonus. When you are in the Grid View, you can also drag and drop pages around so you can reorder things however you want.
Canva Hack 6: Branded Stock Photos
Did you know you can search Canva for stock images that match your brand colors? Super cool.
First thing I’m going to do is click on my Brand Hub. You have access to this with Canva Pro.
I’m going to grab this green color, which is one of my brand colors. If we come over here and let’s say, I want this image to be of somebody celebrating. So I type in the word ‘celebrate’ in the search, go to Photos. I want it to fit my brand images. Instead of scrolling through forever to find one that matches your brand colors, simply go up to this little filter (it’s three lines with circles on them), click on that. Click on the plus button. Drop in your brand color. Choose Apply.
And then down here, it’s behind my picture. There’s a button that says Apply Filters. So now I have all these pictures that match my brand colors that I can then drop into this photo. Pretty awesome.
Canva Hack 7: QR Code
Have you ever needed a QR code? I created this beautiful postcard for a client, Becky Kemp. She speaks publicly and she wanted a card to give people that they could then go home and scan in order to be taken directly to her website, maybe to a sales page or to a squeeze page or something similar. You can do that right here inside of Canva.
Over here on the left, I’m going to choose Apps and then I’m going to search ‘QR code.’ You’re going to enter the URL. So for me, I might put DesignedForGoodness.com/Join and then ‘Generate QR code.’ It will appear on your design and just like any other element, you can resize it and drag it and drop it where you want it.
Canva Hack 8: Copy Style
This next one is something that I have done forever inside of Elementor . That’s the tool I used to design websites. I only recently learned you can do this inside of Canva as well.
So I have this box here and let’s just say I would rather it be pink. I want it to have a slashed border that’s 7 pixels wide and I want that border to be a lighter pink. So that took a few seconds. It wasn’t long. And I could come over here and redo that on this other box. Or I could simply right click on this box, choose Copy Style, then click on the other box. And it’s like magic. The style is right there.
So time saving.
Canva Hack 9: Quick Create Collection
This next tip is going to make creating your social media graphics so easy.
From the homepage here in Canva, you’re going to click on ‘social media.’ And then you’re going to click on ‘quick create collection.’ Choose ‘get started.’ Get started again.
Then you’re going to choose the social media posts you want to create. So I’m going to choose an Instagram post, an Instagram Story, Facebook post, a Pinterest pin and an email header. But come down here to text, I’m simply going to type in the title of this video. So 10 lesser-known Canva hacks that will save you time.
Then it’s going to ask for your image or logo. I am not going to worry about my logo, but you can upload images. So I can choose Upload and I’ll grab this one.
Then we’ll go to Templates and you can choose something that fits your branding. So my branding is probably a little bit more organic and then under Styles, if you have your brand saved, you can come in here and choose your brand palette. If you do not, it will simply pull in colors that match the image that you chose. I’ll go to my brand palette then I’ll choose my brand font . So everything’s now in my brand fonts, then I’ll choose Finish.
And it’s going to take a minute for it to save all these different posts. If you’re fine with them and they look like you want them to, you can just choose Download, but you can also go to See My Collection and it has automatically put these into a folder for you.
This Pinterest pin is probably the only one that I want to change. My head’s a little cut off there so I’ll click on this, choose Crop, bring myself down into that. I’m also going to change the background color on here so it shows up a little bit better on Pinterest, which means I need to change the color of that. You can download them all and you have all of your social media graphics created in just a few seconds.
Canva Hack 10: Forward Slash
Our last tip for today is one that I just recently learned. It’s a keyboard shortcut.
If you’re inside any Canva design and you hit /, this box will appear. It will pull certain recommended actions to the top, but you can hit ‘show more’ and find almost anything that you want to do right here without having to search for it over on the left.
So I can quickly add a line, I can hit that button again and it will now tell me what my recommended actions are. Do you want to change the line type? It will let me change its transparency, send it backward, align it to the top of the page. If I click off that line and click the / again, I once again have all of my options.
Maybe I want to add a rectangle. Once I’ve clicked on that rectangle I have click / and it will let me change the border style around the corners. All of that from just this one quick little menu.
If you would like 10 additional Canva hacks, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel because I will be releasing that video in a few weeks.
If you would like more help figuring out how to use tech tools to give you back more time for your family and grow your business, watch this video where I share my top six favorite tech tools.
