 Creating Presentations Using Canva Canva is an online graphic design tool. It can be used for creating many different multimedia projects, including presentations. Canva is a freemium tool, which means it includes both free-to-use and paid-to-use content. Using Canva for free means that you'll be limited to using the platform's free graphics, templates, and features. There are some features that may make Canva a good choice for you. Canva is known for a large collection of templates to use, including mobile, game, video, and traditional presentations. The templates make it easy to create gorgeous presentations with little design knowledge. Canva is also browser-based, which means there are no programs to install, and you can present right from your browser, making it a good option if you're unsure about what kind of computer will be in the room. Being browser-based means that Canva can include features such as Canva Live, which allows you to present right in Canva, have your audience follow along with the presentation, and submit questions live. Creating presentations in Canva is relatively simple, no matter your previous experience with the tool. In this video, we'll cover the basics of using Canva to create a beautiful presentation. The first step is outlining your content. Decide on a working title and some main points that you want your audience to take away from the presentation. This will give you a rough structure that you can begin to fill in with more details. If you can, try to frame your content as a narrative. Stories and personal anecdotes help your audience to relate to you and your content. To learn more, watch our storytelling video on the Learning Portal. The narrative format can help keep an audience engaged, but you need to back these stories up with relevant data and examples to boost your content's credibility. This can be done through relevant charts or infographics to keep your presentation visually interesting. Once your content is nailed down, it's time to begin creating in Canva. The first step is to log in to your account. Go to www.canva.com and press Login if you already have an account. If not, you'll need to create one. To do this, click the Sign Up button. Now that you have access to the site, it's time to begin creating. You should determine right away what type and size layout your presentation needs to be. You can choose from 16x9, Talking Presentations, Mobile First 4x3, Rainstorming Presentations, and Game Presentations. Once you have chosen a slide size, you need to decide whether you want to start your project from scratch, or if you would like to use a pre-populated template. Starting from scratch will give you more freedom with the design, but as mentioned previously, Canva is well known for their templates. Click the size you want and explore the variety of templates until you find something that fits your needs. Make sure the template you choose is labeled as free. Pay to use content can be identified by a crown icon beside the resource or feature of the site. If you're not sure whether a picture, graphic, or template is free to use, bring it into your presentation and then tap on the Download button. If you have used any paid content, you'll see a cost to download your project. Some templates may not have a pay resource crown, but may still have paid-for images embedded within the design. When you click on the chosen template, it will show you all the slide layouts included with this template, as well as the color and font themes. Click on Apply All Pages at the top of the menu. Under the same template tab, where you can browse the pre-populated templates, there is a section called Layouts. Navigate to this and there are a variety of slide layouts to choose from. Everything from title pages to photo collages to diagrams. When you add one of these to your presentation, it is automatically applied with the same design as your template. The key to making your presentation look professional is consistency. Be sure to maintain the same colors, logos, and fonts across all of the slides in your presentation. If you want to edit a specific text entry, you can click on the Text Entry block and use the Edit menu that appears above your slide. You can edit the specific text, size, color, alignment, font, and more. Choose from the fonts and colors included in your theme or something entirely different. You can also change your color palette or font styles at any point of your build by clicking on the Styles tab in the left menu bar. So don't be afraid to experiment. You're also able to modify your slide background. Look for the Background button on the left-hand side of the screen. If you do not see it there, check the More button that is usually found at the bottom of the menu. Here you can decide if you want a solid color, a pattern, or an image as a background. The media possibilities on Canva are almost endless. You can use photos, video, audio, graphics, charts, graphs, or tables. It can, at times, be difficult to find the perfect free image or resource for your presentation. If you're not able to find something with Canva, an alternative is to create your own or find a Creative Commons resource online. Canva accepts both PNG and JPEG image files. To upload an image or graphic into Canva, tap Uploads, Upload Files. Now locate the media you wish to upload on your computer. Do not forget to cite any content that is not yours. To add elements directly from Canva, tap on the Elements button to add lines, shapes, graphics, photos, and more. Use the Search feature to help narrow your options. Once you find a resource you would like to use, click on the resource to import it into your presentation. If you want to visualize any data, find the format you would like to use, such as a chart or a graph, and then you'll be able to input the appropriate information. Once your slides are designed just the way you want them, you can decide to add slide transitions or animations. Done well, they can add a little bit of movement and interest to your presentation. To access transitions, click on the three dots in the corner of each of the slides. Click Add Transition from the menu bar that pops up and choose the transition you'd like to use. To animate an element, first right-click on it, then choose Animate from the menu bar, then Preview and select your preferred animation. There are different animations available depending on what kind of element you click on. You can animate text and graphics individually, or if you click on the whole slide, there are animation combinations that apply to everything on your slide. Play around with the layout and design of your presentation until you have something you're happy with. Once you have completed your presentation and have carefully reviewed it, it is time to present. In the upper right corner of the screen, click on Present. If there are any fees listed here, you know that you have some paid content within your presentation. You can either replace the content with something free or present it with watermarks. You can choose from four different presentation styles. Standard, where you advance the presentation at your own pace. Autoplay, where you set a speed and the presentation will automatically advance. Presenter View, which shows your notes, timings, and upcoming slides. And Present and Record, where you can record yourself as you present. Click your chosen presentation style, then click on Present. Choosing Standard Presentation will just open your slide deck full screen. You can advance the presentation yourself by clicking on the left or right of your slides. Before choosing Autoplay, you need to set timings for each of your slides by clicking the little clock at the top of your editing window. You can set the same timings for all of the slides or change them individually. After you've done this, you are able to select Autoplay and let the presentation progress automatically. Presenter View is my personal favorite. Selecting this opens two windows, one for your eyes only and one that the audience sees. The window that only you can see has a section for you to write notes on each slide. Here, you can put parts of your script as prompts for yourself during the presentation or reminders to pause for question or anything else you can think of. It also shows you the current time and the elapsed time of your presentation. Lastly, the Present and Record feature turns your presentation into what Canva calls a talking presentation. This allows you to pre-record yourself giving the presentation in case you can't present live or people were unable to attend or even if you're uncomfortable presenting live. Present and Record allows you to perfect your presentation and share it across the web embedded with your video and voiceover. In all the presentation styles, there's an option to create a Canva live session where your audience can interact with you and your presentation in a real-time live chat. Here, they can ask any questions they may have, send reactions or start a discussion. Another feature available in all modes is Magic Shortcuts. This appears as a little keyboard icon. Clicking this produces a menu with multiple options for pop-up animations and corresponding keyboard shortcuts to use during a presentation. For example, clicking on Curtain Call or pressing U on your keyboard will begin an animation of curtains closing around your slide. Repeating this action will open the curtains again. There is also a timer from 1 to 9 minutes, a blurring effect, a prompt for your audience to be quiet, bubbles, confetti, a drum roll, a night drop and X to close the menu. Next to this button is one with three dots. In this menu, there's an option to hide Magic Cursor. This just removes the blue circle from around your cursor. There's Share Remote Control, which allows you to control the presentation from a different device, such as a mobile phone. Clicking Start Autoplay changes your presentation from one that you advance yourself to one with the timings that you applied earlier. There's a lot going on in Canva, so we recommend practicing using all the tools that you will use during the presentation itself. The more you practice, the better you'll know the content and the technology, and you'll settle into the presentation, thus appearing more comfortable and confident to the audience. As mentioned earlier, you present in your browser in Canva itself. We recommend also saving your slides as PDFs or an MP4 video in case anything goes wrong on the day of. At least in this case, you'll have all the slides, designs, and content ready to go as a backup. To do this, click Share in the top right corner, then click Download. Here you can choose the file type that you want, and which slides to include. Finally, click Download and choose the location on your computer. Congratulations, you're done! If you get stuck at all, there's plenty of helpful content, as well as tips and tutorials on the Canva website. With this knowledge under your belt, you should now have the tools to create your best presentation yet.