Canva Tips for Beginners - Learn Canva in 90 Minutes (2024)

In this Canva Basics 2024 tutorial you'll learn my top Canva tips for beginners and any Canva users that are just looking to work more efficiently in Canva. These tips come from years of teaching Canva to students all over the world and discovering the Canva fundamentals, basics, and smart workflow strategies that consistently save users time. Even if you are a total Canva newbie, in just 90 minutes I will take you from a Canva novice to a confident Canva user who is able to avoid a lot of the pitfalls and common traps that regularly ensnare inexperienced Canva users. And then, to pair with this video and help you lock in all of these Canva fundamentals, I've created a free Canva Zero2Hero Challenge to help you practice what you'll learn ➡️ 🚀 learningwithgreg.mykajabi.com...
Table of Content/Jump to a Topic:
0:00:00 Intro
0:01:47 Getting Started, Signing up for Canva
0:03:32 The Canva Home Screen
0:04:50 The Home Screen Left Menu (Projects/Templates/Brand/Apps)
0:08:34 Searching for Designs & Launching New Ones
0:10:57 Project Interface: Basic Layout
0:11:34 The Design Tab
0:13:55 The Elements Tab
0:17:11 Free vs. Pro Elements
0:18:15 Adding Text
0:18:43 Navigating Between Pages and Interfaces
0:19:19 Brand Options
0:19:44 Uploading Media
0:20:22 Organize into Folders
0:21:07 Accessing Saved Assets & Designs via the Projects Tab
0:22:22 The Apps Tab
0:23:02 Organizing the Left Menu
0:23:55 Working with Different Content
0:24:50 Selecting Items
0:25:05 The Top Contextual Menu
0:25:17 Differences between Graphics
0:27:07 Resizing and Cropping Graphics
0:28:07 Resizing and Cropping Photos
0:30:02 Edit Photo Options
0:32:40 Working with Text
0:36:14 Working with Shapes
0:38:34 Working with Audio and Video
0:39:05 The Importance of the New Canva Video Editor
0:40:20 Forcing the New Canva Video Editor
0:42:12 Using the Duration Option while Editing Video
0:42:33 Zooming in on your Video Timeline
0:44:07 How to Control the Timing of Different Elements
0:46:32 Working with Audio
0:47:49 Time Saving Fundamental Skills
0:48:08 Selection Fundamentals
0:50:24 Moving Elements
0:53:28 The Layers Menu
0:54:37 Layer Stacking Order Keyboard Shortcuts
0:57:20 The Background Layer
0:58:23 Grouping Layers
1:00:40 Duplicating Elements
1:01:24 Tips for Aligning & Positioning Elements
1:02:51 Understanding Grids and Frames
1:07:14 Using Rulers & Guides
1:12:44 Adopting a Smart Workflow
1:13:10 Templating
1:17:20 Saving Templates as Reusable Assets
1:20:11 Making Smart Use of Folders
1:22:02 Download, Sharing, and Social Media Scheduling
Thanks for watching, good luck with the challenge!
cheers,
Greg

[@learncanvawithgreg]

Zero2Hero Canva Challenge Link: 🚀 learningwithgreg.mykajabi.com/optin-zeroToHero

[@buttonuk]

thanks for your reply, Greg! I'm on the section where you're editing video and my interface is very different, although I am trialing the /canva Pro app. Nothing appears below for this or the other images. I only get video info on the top bar, with the scissor icon. Any suggestions? Your interface looks much simpler!😃

[@alywatson7569]

great video, thanks for taking the time to make it

[@learncanvawithgreg]

My pleasure! cheers, Greg

[@buttonuk]

Hi Greg, thanks for this awesome tutorial! I'm working through it step by step using Canva Pro. On the page with 3 dogs, I downloaded the photo too. However, when I click it I don't get an "'Edit photo' command at the top, just 'Edit Image'. Can you help please? Thanks, Sandi from Cape Town.

[@learncanvawithgreg]

Hi Sandy,
Thanks for the question. I actually think this is reflective of a new Canva UI (user interface) change that has just been implemented. It looks like maybe Canva has decided to simplify things and just always show "Edit Image" while previously they had "Edit Photo" for raster based graphics. Now it appears you always get "Edit Image" although it's worth noting that functionally nothing has changed...their will still be Magic Studio tools like BG Remover, Magic Eraser, etc. that will be grayed out and if you have a vector based graphic selected, but you also might get additional options like an image color palette in the top contextual menu for this type of graphic. So, you'll still experience differences depending on the type of graphic, it just now apparently always says "Edit Image".
It's worth noting that tomorrow is Canva's big annual Canva Create event where they announce a # of Canva updates so don't be surprised if you notice some more differences and new things in your Canva interface. I will watch the livestream tomorrow and post to this channel as quickly as I am able about all the updates!
cheers,
Greg

[@musharafkhan6491]

Excellent 🎉

[@learncanvawithgreg]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed. cheers, Greg

[@buttonuk]

Is it possible that I don't have the new editor?

[@learncanvawithgreg]

I think the new editor should be available to everyone regardless of being on free, pro, or trial. Just remember it gets hidden sometime if you start in a document format (poster, etc.) where Canva isn't necessarily expecting you to include video content. In situations like the only way to get ALL of the new editor options (like the Duration option) that I've found is to port the current design over to a new format where Canva is expecting video. So you could use something like Resize and Magic Switch and go to one of the sizes where video is expected. Of course, if you want to keep your current document dimensions (which can be found under the File menu, top the right of your name) I've found that any document you start from the home screen using the "Custom size" options seems to have the new editor. An easy way for selecting and copying all pages from one document is using Grid view (4 squares icon near bottom right). In grid view, click and then Shift+click to select the range of pages you want to copy. Then, in your new project which you launched via the custom size option, use Ctrl+V to paste (or right-click and choose paste). New pages should be ported over. Hope this helps! cheers, Greg