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How-To Use
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Open your Internet Browser
and go to www.canva.com
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This is the Canva homepage
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There are 3 ways to sign up
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First is using your Facebook
account
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You will be asked to login to
your Facebook account

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Another is using your Google
account
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Type in your Gmail address
and click next

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Then input your password and
click next

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Lastly, you can sign up using
other email account
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Type in your Full Name

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Type in your email address

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Type in your email address
again to confirm

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Type in the password you will
use for Canva

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This is the Welcome wizard
when you first login to Canva
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Selecting WHAT DO YOU DO from the
list, Canva will help you by displaying
the templates related to your work
first.
You can always use all other
templates if you needed to.
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Select None of the above
applies if you are unsure
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You can select what you want
to create right away
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We will select Play with Canva
for now
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The Canva
Dashboard
This is the starting page
every time we login
to Canva
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This is our Canva dashboard
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These are the most popular
Canva Templates
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Click More to show all available
templates
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Canva will show you all of their
available templates
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Canva templates are using image sizes
that are optimized for what you
intend to use them for.
Hovering or pointing your mouse to
the templates will show you what the
image size will be.
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If what you need is not in the
templates
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You can also use custom
dimensions
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For now we will select
Facebook Post
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A new tab will be opened for
our selected design
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For your first Canva design,
this dialog will show
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Click Got it, thanks!
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Let’s Get
Familiar With
Canva
I will show you how to get
around with the Canva
menu, buttons and
interface
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“
If I had six hours to chop down a
tree, I’d spend the first four hours
sharpening my axe.
– Abraham Lincoln –
16th U.S. President and now a Vampire hunter
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This is the Canva Menu bar
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Clicking this Canva brings you
to your starting dashboard
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File allows you to Save, Make a
copy, and Resize
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Undo the last action you did
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You can also use the keyboard
shortcut CTRL+Z to undo your last
actions like how most common
editing software has.
Most common keyboard shortcuts like
for Copy and Paste are can also be
used.
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Redo the actions you undid
using the Undo
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Help will open the Canva
support page
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Status that displays if your
work was saved or not
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Design name of the Canva
design you are working
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Share to your social media
account, or as link, or embed
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Download your design
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Make public to share your
design to all Canva users
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This is the Canva Side panel

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Layout contains templates that
you can customize

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Elements have all graphical
objects for your design

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Free Photos that you can add
and use to your design

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Click or drag photos to add to
your design

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There are customizable photo
filters for dramatic effects

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Crop the selected image to
remove unwanted parts

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Flip the image either vertically
and/or horizontally

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Grids help you organize images
in a pleasing format

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Click or drag the grid to add to
your design

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Frames are like grids that are
photo containers

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But they have different shapes
and decorative designs

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Customizable shapes for your
creative designs

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Lines as your separator or for
other creative purposes

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Illustrations are like clip art

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Icons for logos and more
simple graphics

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Charts to display your data
graphically

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All graphics related to the
Canva brand

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Here contains the editable text
elements

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These are the basic text
formats to get you started

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There are also lots of
typography templates

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Background options for your
design

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Click to use a simple solid
background color

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You can also select from the
available patterns

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There are also background
images for a fee

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Paid images will have the
Canva watermark

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But there are also FREE
background images

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Uploads contain the images
that you own

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Click this button to upload
your images

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Uploaded images from your
computer will display here

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Purchased Canva images will
be shown here

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You can use your Facebook
photos if you sign in

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Let’s Start
Designing in
Canva
Now that we have
sharpened our axes,
it’s time to chop
down that tree.
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I am showing you the final
design first so you can
visualize it before we start
making it.
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“
Visualize this thing that you want,
see it, feel it, believe in it. Make
your mental blue print, and begin to
build.
– Robert Collier –
American author of self-help books
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Browse and select from the
Layout templates
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Click on the image to select
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Press delete from keyboard or
use the Canva delete button
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The frame element will be left
behind
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Browse for a new frame to
replace it
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Click to add the frame to our
design
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Drag and move the new frame
over the older frame
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A guide will be shown that it is
aligned with the old frame
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Click Back to arrange the new
frame backwards
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Keep clicking Back until we
can see the old frame
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Click and move the old frame
then delete it
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Select the new frame then click
on the Color picker
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Select the white color
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Type in baby at the Search box
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Drag this photo to the frame
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The photo will snap inside the
frame
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Double click the photo so we
can adjust it
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Drag the photo to move it and
center the photo subject
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Click the Check button to
apply the changes
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It will now look like this
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Let’s change the colors to
match the new image
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Click to select the shape that
we will change
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You may think at first that the shape
used in the image is a triangle. After
selecting the shape, it is actually a
rectangle.
Since the angle of triangles cannot be
changed, you can use rectangles and
rotate them instead.
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Click on the color picker
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I will select this shade of blue
color
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Now let’s select the other shape
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Change the color to orange
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We will now edit the text
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Click on one of the texts
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You will notice that there are
like two boxes
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These texts are grouped
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Two or more texts objects can be
grouped together and treated as one
object.
Actions like copy, move, resize, and
more can be done once and will apply
to all the objects in the group.
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Click and select the text to be
replaced
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Then type in the new text
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Do the same to the other texts
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We will ungroup these texts to
resize them separately
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Click outside the group to
unselect them all
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Click on the first text that we
will edit
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Click on font selection and
choose a childish font
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We will select Schoolbell
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Resize the font using the Font
size tool
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We will select 42 as the new
Font size
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The text box automatically
creates a new line
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Resize the text box to stretch
wider
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Now it has same width like the
text below it
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Click on the box line and drag
to move the text upwards
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Now that looks better when it
has good space
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When moving an object around your
Canva design, you can also use the
Arrow keys from your keyboard.
You can do this to all movable
elements like text, shapes, frames,
images, etc.
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129.
Let’s resize the bottom text box
to same width
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Change the Font name to
Schoolbell
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Select 32 as the new Font size
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I tried using the uppercase tool
for ALL CAPS text
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It didn’t look that good so I
undid it using the undo
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Let’s adjust the spacing of the
selected text
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Adjust the letter spacing until
it aligns to the other texts
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Line height is adjusted for the
space between lines of text
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We will add a new text for the
author of this quote
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Click the body text to add it
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Drag and move the new text
below the other texts
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Move here

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Change the text alignment to
left
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Type in the name of author:
Morgan Beart
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Change the Font name to
League Spartan
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TIP
We are using only 2 Font styles for
this design to keep it simple. Avoid
using too many font and type styles.
You can simplify your designs but still
keep them bursting with brilliance.
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Change the font size to 21
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Change the font color to white
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Click to rename our design
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Type the name that makes you
easily identify your design
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Click Done to apply the new
design name
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Start your design names with the design type you
created. This will give you an idea about the image
size and use of this design.
You can use something like FBP – Baby Steps for our
sample design where FBP means Facebook Post or
maybe FBC if you are designing a Facebook Cover.
Make something that helps identify your designs
while browsing them from your dashboard.
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Downloading our
Designs in Canva
Time to use and share
our creative design
to the world
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Click on Download
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Canva supports 4 File types for
downloading our design
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PNG is recommended but we
will select JPG
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Click on Download
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Our design is now in our
Downloads folder
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We can close this tab after all
changes are saved
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All our created designs can be
accessed from our dashboard
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Just click the design to edit it
again
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That’s it! We just had our first
Canva design.
These little steps should be
able to help you start your
own designs soon.
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