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How to Use Canva Presentations

Make visually appealing presentations that'll stand out among others using Canva.

Sakshi Garg

Canva, a graphic design platform, is gaining a lot of traction as a design tool. Its basic premise – it’s just as easy to use for non-designers. You don’t need to be an expert in graphic designing to use Canva, and that is one of the main reasons behind its popularity.

With design becoming one of the hottest commodities for just about every field, Canva makes it accessible to everyone. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a marketer, influencer, or a blogger, you can use Canva to make fetching content for social media, posters, graphics, design your own business cards even. If you’ve got even a little eye for design, Canva can help you cut down on the costs of hiring professional designers.

But did you know you can also use it to make just as engaging and stimulating presentations? Whether you want to make presentations for a professional environment or personal use (like a birthday surprise), Canva Presentations have got you covered. Let’s dive right into it!

Getting Started

Canva offers a web app you can immediately start using on your desktop without having to download anything. Unfortunately, the web app is your only option as there is no desktop app. So you need an internet connection to work with Canva as it stores all your work on its servers.

Canva also has a mobile app for iPhone and Android, which you can use on the go. But when getting started, using the web app is the best course of action.

Go to canva.com and create a free account. Click the ‘Sign Up’ button to create a new account.

how to edit presentation in canva

You can sign up with your Google account, Facebook account, or your email address.

how to edit presentation in canva

Canva has a freemium structure, so you can use it for free with limited features or get a Pro or Enterprise subscription for complete access. It also offers a 30-day free trial to its Pro features, so you can try it out before deciding whether you want to convert to a paid user.

Now, from the Canva home page, click the ‘Presentations’ button under the Design anything banner. If you can’t find the option, you can also search for ‘Presentation’ from the search bar.

how to edit presentation in canva

There are plenty of size options to choose from when creating a presentation. Let’s stick with the standard size ‘1920 x 1080 px’ here.

how to edit presentation in canva

One of the things that makes Canva so easy to use for everyone is the sheer number of templates. The assortment of templates in existence ensures that you’ll find something to match your needs. But if not, you can also start with a blank slate and create your presentation from scratch.

how to edit presentation in canva

For this guide, we are selecting a template for the presentation. Before selecting a template, you can see what it has to offer by clicking the three-dot menu and selecting ‘Preview this template’.

how to edit presentation in canva

Click ‘Use this template’ to select the template if you like it or go back and select another.

how to edit presentation in canva

Editing the Presentation

The template will load into the editing interface. Canva has an eerily easy editing interface. Let’s navigate the interface first. Below the slide is the thumbnail view where you can see all the slides in thumbnails side by side.

how to edit presentation in canva

To turn off the thumbnail view, click the on/ off toggle (arrow).

how to edit presentation in canva

Click the grid view button to switch views.

how to edit presentation in canva

The grid view is helpful when there are a lot of slides in your presentation. Using grid view, you can get an overview of them all. You can also rearrange the slides by dragging and dropping slides into a new position. Click the ‘Grid View’ button again to switch back.

how to edit presentation in canva

Click the ‘Notes’ option to add notes to the presentation that you can use for reference while presenting.

how to edit presentation in canva

The name of the presentation can be edited from the top-most toolbar.

how to edit presentation in canva

Now, on the left is the toolbar that houses all the tools for editing the design elements in the presentation.

how to edit presentation in canva

When you’re using a template, almost all of the elements can be selected and edited. You can delete an element, change color, font (for text). To select an element, hover over it. The part of that element will be highlighted in blue. Click it to select it.

how to edit presentation in canva

Another toolbar will appear above the slide with editing options specific to the element you have selected. Depending on the element, you can change it’s color, font, font size.

how to edit presentation in canva

When you click the color option, a palette for document colors will appear above, followed by available default colors. For free users, only limited color options are available. If you have a Brand Kit (available only for Canva Pro users), that palette will also appear here.

how to edit presentation in canva

Click on the ‘Elements’ option on the left toolbar to add elements like photos, videos, graphics, audio, charts, etc. to your presentation.

how to edit presentation in canva

To add photos, videos, or audio from your computer, click the ‘Uploads’ button. Then, click the ‘Upload media’ button to select content. Any media you previously uploaded will also be available here.

how to edit presentation in canva

You can also add animations to individual elements or the entire page. Select an element and click the ‘Animate’ button.

how to edit presentation in canva

‘Element animations’ will open. To switch to page animations, click the ‘Page Animations’ tab.

how to edit presentation in canva

Presenting your Presentation

Once your presentation is complete comes the main part – presenting it. Canva offers a lot of options for your finished presentation. You can present it right from Canva or publish or download it for various platforms.

To publish it elsewhere or download it, click the ‘three-dot’ menu on the top-right corner.

how to edit presentation in canva

A list of options will appear. You can download it onto your computer, or as a PowerPoint presentation, share a link to the presentation, publish it as a website, embed it on your website, and much more. You can also record it while presenting with a voiceover.

how to edit presentation in canva

To present straight from Canva, click the ‘Present’ button.

how to edit presentation in canva

Click the drop-down menu below ‘Type’ and select how you want to present it.

how to edit presentation in canva

There are three options to choose from: ‘Standard’ – where you present at your own pace, ‘Autoplay’ – where the presentation advances automatically, and ‘Presenter View’ – where you can view your notes and upcoming slides, but the rest of the people cannot. Presenter View is best used when you’re presenting on a projector.

how to edit presentation in canva

After selecting the type, click the ‘Present’ button.

how to edit presentation in canva

Bonus Tips for your Presentation

While presenting the presentation on Canva, you can add special effects to enhance the performance with some keyboard shortcuts. All you need to do is press the associated key with each effect to bring it into action. Press the same key to stop it. You can also press multiple keys to add 2 or more special effects. With these effects, your presentation is bound to stand out to your audience and be memorable.

Drumroll : Add a drumroll before a slide by pressing the key ‘D’ before a big reveal.

how to edit presentation in canva

Confetti : Add a shower of confetti to celebrate something with the key ‘C’ .

how to edit presentation in canva

Countdown : Add a countdown from ‘1-9’ by pressing one of the keys.

how to edit presentation in canva

Quiet : Bring a đŸ€« emoji to screen to hush your audience with the ‘Q’ key.

how to edit presentation in canva

Bubbles : Press down the ‘O’ key to bring bubbles on the screen.

how to edit presentation in canva

Blur : Build tension and add drama to the atmosphere by blurring the screen with the key ‘B’.

how to edit presentation in canva

Presentations are a huge part of professional life, whether you’re presenting to your clients, doing a webinar, promoting your brand, to name a few. With Canva, you can make presentations that’ll leave a long-lasting impact but won’t take long to make.

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Canva Presentations: How to Create and Share Them

Sandy Writtenhouse

Canva may not be your first thought for creating a presentation. However, this popular web-based design tool offers a robust slideshow feature set. We’ll walk through how to create a Canva presentation, present it to your audience, and share it using a variety of methods.

Create a Canva Presentation

If you’ve never made a presentation with Canva, don’t worry. This online graphic design application goes beyond creating images and crafting infographics. Canva makes it super easy to create and set up a presentation for your audience.

On the Canva home page, select Presentations below the Search bar. Then, choose a slideshow size or Canva presentation template to get started.

Create a Canva Presentation image - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-1-compressed

Note : If you’re using Canva Docs , you can also convert your document to a presentation by selecting Convert at the top. Follow the prompts, and you’ll see your presentation open in the Canva editor.

Once in the Canva editor, use the menu on the left side to add slide elements. You can select or drag items like shapes, images, or text boxes onto your slides.

Create a Canva Presentation image 2 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-2-compressed

You can also edit or remove a slide element by selecting it and using the tools that display near the item or in the top toolbar. For example, you can change the style of text or transparency of an image.

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Be sure to check out the full set of Canva presentation tools in the editor. You can add animations, insert slide transitions, use the grid view to rearrange presentation slides, and more.

Set Up the Presentation

After you tap your creativity to make an attractive and informative presentation, you can add notes, clock your speaking time, and adjust the slide durations.

Add Presenter Notes

To add presenter notes to a slide, select Notes in the bottom toolbar. Then, type your note in the panel that displays on the left. You can then move to your other slides and add notes the same way.

Set Up the Presentation image - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-4-compressed

When you finish, deselect Notes in the toolbar.

Use the Timer

If you’d like to time your presentation, you can use the built-in countdown Timer feature. Select Timer in the bottom toolbar to display the timer. By default, the timer is set for five minutes, but you can change this using the plus and minus buttons.

Set Up the Presentation image 2 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-5-compressed

Press the Play button to start the countdown, the Pause button to temporarily stop the timer, and the Reset button to restart the timer.

Set Up the Presentation image 3 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-6-compressed

To close the Timer, deselect Timer in the toolbar.

Set the Slide Duration

Maybe you’re using Autoplay (described below) and would like to display particular slides for a longer or shorter time. You can adjust the slide duration for each or all slides in two different ways in Canva.

Use the Duration Slider

Expand the bottom section by selecting the Show Pages arrow. Then, choose Duration on the left to see the default timing for each slide.

Set Up the Presentation image 4 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-7-compressed

Select a slide thumbnail (page) and hover your cursor over the left or right side of it to display the duration slider. Then, drag the slider in or out to shorten or lengthen the duration.

Set Up the Presentation image 5 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-8-compressed

When you finish, deselect Duration in the toolbar and optionally use the Hide Pages arrow to minimize the bottom section.

Use the Timing Feature

Another way to change the duration of a slide is by using the Timing option at the top of the editor. Select a slide to see its duration and choose the current timing to enter a new duration, or use the slider to adjust it.

You can also turn on the toggle to apply the new duration to all pages (slides) in the presentation.

Set Up the Presentation image 6 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-9-compressed

To close the Timing tool, deselect it in the top toolbar.

Show a Canva Presentation

The great thing about creating a presentation in Canva is that you can present from it as well. If you prefer not to download and present using a different application, you have a few options to show your slideshow directly from Canva.

When you’re ready to present or practice your presentation, select Present on the top right. You’ll then see the options below.

Show a Canva Presentation image - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-10-compressed

Present in Full Screen Mode

Choose the Present full screen option to enter presentation mode. You’ll see your presentation consume your entire screen and have controls at the bottom.

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Use the arrows on the left to move through the slides and the controls on the right to zoom, interact, use shortcuts, or exit full-screen mode.

Use Presenter View

To see your notes and controls on one screen with your presentation on another for your audience, choose Presenter view .

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Your screen shows the time, a count-up timer, and other controls for a countdown, AutoPlay, and the font size for your notes.

You can drag the other screen wherever needed for your audience to view.

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Present and Record

Maybe you want to incorporate your smiling face into your presentation. For this, pick the Present and record option to record yourself live as the presentation plays. You can then share the whole presentation as if you’re in the same room.

Note : This feature is currently only available when using the Google Chrome web browser.

You’ll see your face appear in a circle on the bottom left of the presentation. You can use the Pause and End recording buttons at the top to control the recording as well as see your presenter notes.

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When you finish, you’ll see a link that you can copy and have the option to download the recorded presentation immediately.

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Use Autoplay

Like Autoplay for a PowerPoint presentation, this is one more way to present a slideshow using Canva. With Autoplay, you can start the presentation and let it play on its own. This is ideal for kiosk presentations or when you are unable to present yourself.

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When you choose Autoplay , the presentation begins and moves through each slide using the Durations you set (explained earlier). You can also manually control the presentation if needed using the same tools as the Present Full Screen option.

Share a Canva Presentation

Along with or instead of actually presenting a slideshow with Canva, you can share it in a variety of ways. Whether you want to collaborate with your team, download the file to your device, or pop the presentation up on social media, Canva has you covered.

Select Share in the top right corner and then choose one of the following ways to share.

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Collaborate With Others

Maybe you want to work on the final presentation with a team member or coworker. You can grant access to others and provide them with a collaboration link.

Enter the people, groups, teams, or email addresses in the People with access field. Then, open the Collaboration link drop-down menu and pick Anyone with link to provide access.

Share a Canva Presentation image 2 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-18-compressed

Download a Presentation

If you’d like to save your presentation to your device or download it as a Microsoft PowerPoint file, this is easy too.

Select Download and use the File type drop-down to pick PDF, PPTX, GIF, PNG, or another format.

You can then choose to flatten the PDF, include notes, or download only certain pages (slides).

Share a Canva Presentation image 3 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-19-compressed

Share on Social Media

Want to post your presentation directly to Facebook, Instagram, or another social media network? Select Share on social , choose the location, and follow the subsequent prompts to sign in and set up the social media post.

Share a Canva Presentation image 4 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-20-compressed

More Sharing Options

If you don’t see the sharing avenue you want, don’t despair because there are even more. Select More at the bottom of the Share menu.

You’ll then see sections for Share, Social, Save, Messaging, Design, and More Options giving you a ton of sharing methods. As examples, you can obtain a public link, send it to your phone, get an embed code for your blog, upload it to Dropbox or Google Drive, send it to Slack or WhatsApp, and more.

Share a Canva Presentation image 5 - how-to-create-and-share-a-canva-presentation-21-compressed

Will You Create a Presentation in Canva?

Now that you know the basics, are you going to use Canva for your next presentation? If so, let us know what you think of the tools and features. For doing even more, check out how to blur a face in a photo using Canva .

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Sandy Writtenhouse is a freelance technology writer and former Project, Department, and Program Manager. She turned her education, job experience, and love of technology into a full-time writing career. With all sorts of gadgets in her home and her hands, she seeks to help others make life easier through technology. Read Sandy's Full Bio

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Guiding Tech

How to Create Presentations in Canva

how to edit presentation in canva

Parth Shah is an evergreen freelance writer covering how-tos, app guides, comparisons, listicles, and troubleshooting guides on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and smart TV platforms. He has over five years of experience and has covered 1,500+ articles on GuidingTech and Android Police. In his free time, you will see him binge-watching Netflix shows, reading books, and traveling.

how to edit presentation in canva

Afam has been a content writer with Guiding Tech Media since August 2023. However, his experience in tech writing dates back to 2018, when he worked as a freelance writer for Make Tech Easier. Over the years, he has grown a reputation for publishing quality guides, reviews, tips, and explainer articles. His work is featured on top websites, including Technical Ustad, Windows Report, and Next of Windows. He has training as a Microsoft Certified Professional and has covered more Microsoft-related guides on these platforms.

  • You can easily customize templates, add graphics, and animate slides without needing extensive design skills.
  • Canva’s collaboration features allow for real-time editing and sharing of presentations.
  • Canva provides various export options, including PDF, PPTX, MP4, and image formats.

How to Create Canva Presentations

To create Canva presentations, you must follow a few steps. We break them down into the headings below.

Pick Up an Aspect Ratio and Template

Pick a relevant aspect ratio for your presentation. If it’s a traditional PPT, go with a 16:9 aspect ratio. If you plan to show your PPT on mobile, use the 9:16 aspect ratio. Tablet users can start with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Canva also offers some ready-to-use templates to get started. We highly recommend starting with a template to save some time.

Step 1: On the left pane, click Templates .

Step 2: Choose a template from the options or search for one using the search field.

Select a template

Step 3: Click Customize this template once satisfied with your choice.

Customize a template

Note: You can filter templates via style, theme, feature, and color. For example, you can check company, marketing, corporate, marketing, school, and other templates. Under templates, you also find an option to create instant presentations. You can enter a prompt and check Canva’s suggestions to get started.

Customize a Page With Editing Features

Once you select a template, you can add all pages to your presentations and customize other pages.

Step 1: To select a page for customization, click on it at the bottom of the interface.

Page selection

Step 2: At the bottom of the interface, click the three-dot icon for a page and select any of the available options.

Create Presentations in Canva 4

Step 3: When you click on a page, Canva lets you change every aspect of the template with different text styles, filters, and image editing tools. You can change color, tweak transparency, copy style, and more.

Create Presentations in Canva

We suggest editing tools to customize your Canva presentation and add personal touches.

Add Graphics, Stickers, and Images

Your presentation will not seem attractive without graphics, stickers, images, and videos. Unlike Google Slides or PowerPoint, you don’t need to import media files to Canva to complete your slides. You can easily add relevant elements from the sidebar.

Step 1: Open a slide in your Canva presentation.

Step 2: Select Elements from the sidebar. You can add graphics, icons, stickers, tables, videos, and more.

Step 3: You can explore the AI image generator and turn your creative ideas into images and videos with a single click.

Using Elements on Canva

You can add simple descriptions and even turn generated images into videos. Canva also offers a long list of graphics packs in several categories. The possibilities are endless here. It’s up to you to make a compelling slide using useful tools.

Tweak Page Animation

Once you create a page, tweak its animation to smoothly transition between pages.

Step 1: Select a slide in Canva.

Step 2: Click Animate at the top.

Animate page in Canva

Step 3: Check Basic , Exaggerate , Photo Movement , and other animation types from the left sidebar.

Animation options

You can also tweak the animation intensity, which is great.

Add Presenter Notes

Do you plan to present your Canva PPT on a video conference? You can add notes to each slide so they appear during the Presenter view (more on that later).

Step 1: When you create a PPT, select a slide and hit Notes at the bottom.

Create notes for presenting

Step 2: Enter the notes you want to remember or discuss during a video meeting.

Create Presentations in Canva 7

Collaborate and Edit in Real Time

Like Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint, Canva lets you share and edit a presentation in real-time. You can take your colleagues’ input and create a share-worthy presentation quickly.

Step 1: When you are done making changes to your presentation, click Share at the top.

Step 2: Enter people, groups, or your team. Expand the collaboration link menu and select Anyone with the link .

Step 3: Expand the permission menu and select Can edit .

Presenting options

You can also share a link with view or comment-only permission. Select the Copy link and share it with your co-workers.

Enable Presenter View or Download and Share Your Presentation

Presenter view is a thoughtful touch from Canva to give presentations over a Google Meet or Teams call.

Step 1: Open a presentation in Canva and select Present at the top.

Step 2: Click Presenter View and check two windows opening up on your computer.

Presenter view

One window shows your presentation with notes open on the sidebar. Another window displays the current slide you are sharing with others over a call.

Create Presentations in Canva 9

As expected, Canva offers several options for sharing and exporting your presentation. When you complete your presentation, click Share in the top-right corner and expand Download .

You can convert a presentation to PDF, PPTX (Microsoft PowerPoint compatible), MP4, JPG, PNG and SVG formats. Check our dedicated post if you wish to print your Canva presentation .

Create Presentations in Canva 10

1. Can you customize a PowerPoint presentation (.PPTX) in Canva?

Yes, you can customize a PowerPoint presentation (PPTX) in Canva. You will need to upload the presentation, edit it, customize your slides, and then download it.

2. Can you edit a Canva presentation in the Microsoft PowerPoint?

Yes, you can edit a Canva presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint. You will need to download it from Canva, open it in Microsoft PowerPoint, edit the presentation, and save your changes.

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Last updated on 27 August, 2024

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How to Add Voice Overs to Canva Presentations

The article above may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. The content remains unbiased and authentic and will never affect our editorial integrity.

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how to edit presentation in canva

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How to create a Canva presentation and edit in PowerPoint

Courtney

  • April 28, 2023
  • Last updated: July 4, 2024

So maybe you've heard about Canva and want to check out the templates, but feel overwhelmed at the prospect of learning how to use a new tool? Wondering can you convert Canva to PowerPoint? Great news - you can generate a template and start a presentation in Canva, then export it to PowerPoint to edit further.

This blog post provides a step by step guide for how to create presentations in Canva and export to PowerPoint for editing.

Step 1: How to create templates in Canva

Once you arrive on the Canva landing page,  you want  to select ‘Presentations’. This will take you to a view where you can select your presentation format.  For our example I’m selecting the Presentation 16:9 layout, because it is a size directly compatible with PowerPoint.

Screenshot of canva can you convert canva to powerpoint steps

Canva has a lot of presentation templates and a feature to let you rapidly set up the templates even to customize the content structure.

Screenshot of canva can you convert canva to powerpoint  finding Canva templates

Next I can select from available templates.  I could create a new presentation from scratch, but the point of this is to leverage a Canva template as a starting point that I can complete in PowerPoint.  I’ve selected a Real Estate template in this example.

Screenshot of canva selecting a template

Canva gives me the option to use all slides in the template, or to select specific slides.  I’m going to start by using all slides so that I have them when I export.

Screenshot of canva reviewing template options

Using Canva’s Magic Design feature

Rather than selecting a template as per the steps above, Canva also now has a Magic Design option.  When you use Magic Design, you can enter the words to describe what your presentation is about.  Based on this, Canva can generate a specific template as a more customized starting point.   If you find an existing template that strongly aligns to your presentation intent then you may not need Magic Design.  But if you cannot see a template that matches your needs, this is a great option. 

Screenshot of canva Magic Design option

For the Magic Design template I’m going to ask Canva for a ‘Consulting services proposal template’.

Screenshot of canva saving a template generated by Magic design

Canva generates several variant options based on what I have typed into the Magic Design prompt.

Screenshot of canva reviewing options for Magic Design template variations

Admittedly most of them are not great, but we can do some further quick customizations.  However I can also revise my prompt to see if I can improve the relevance of the results.  For the following option I selected ‘start again’ and then I changed the prompt to ‘Strategy Consulting Services proposal for banking industry .  From this search I got new template options, as follows:

Screenshot of canva using Magic design for Consulting proposal

I’m getting curious now about the prompts, so I’ve revised it again in the following example, to Strategy Consulting Proposal for Fintech .

Screenshot of canva magic design

Refining the search terms slightly seems to have changed the main graphic used in the variant.  Ok, I’ll use this as my starting point for a template and do a few further customizations before I export it.

Once I select it, Canva loads the template into the editing view.  Note that because Magic Design is still in Beta, there is an annotation that the technology is still new and improving (this review was completed in April 2023).

Screenshot of canva magic design editing view

Once I click on any of the slides in my chosen template, the screen will refresh with some editing options.  We can change the colors and images.

Screenshot of canva editing options in toolbar

If you select to recolor a slide, a “Change all” button dynamically appears.

Screenshot of canva recoloring slides

Note that if you primarily work with PowerPoint, the way that the Canva left hand panel of options dynamically changes can be confusing. 

Once you’re happy with colors, another option to explore is Layouts.  You can add more layouts to your presentation before you export it, to save time when you add / update the rest of your content.

Screenshot of canva suggested layouts options

Step 2: How to export Canva template to PowerPoint

Note that if you want to export your presentation to PowerPoint, there’s no point playing with the Canva Animations, as these will not come across when the file is converted.

Now that we’ve got a reasonable template, let’s export it to PowerPoint.  It’s a bit trickier than you would expect – looks like Canva is trying to hide the PowerPoint option.   To find it, click the Share button on the top right hand corner and you will see the following options.....

Screenshot of canva finding share button to export to PowerPoint

But you can Scroll down


Screenshot of canva finding the more menu option under the share menu

You would think that the Download menu would be the next step, but it’s not there!  Instead click on the 
 More menu

Screenshot of canva scrolling through the share more menu options

And scroll down (yes, very hidden!!)

Screenshot of canva selecting the download to PowerPoint option

Here it is! Canva has a save as Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation button in the More... section. Click this option and follow the prompts to save.

Screenshot of canva downloading presentation to PowerPoint pptx format

Step 3: Open your Canva Template in PowerPoint

Now that you have downloaded your Canva template to PowerPoint, you can open your presentation file in PowerPoint.

Screenshot of opening canva template in PowerPoint

You should find that all text, images and colors can be updated or deleted.

It's important to note that when you import a Canva file into PowerPoint, it does not import the slides with a template into PowerPoint's template format. This means your slides are using a PowerPoint 'blank' template with images and color backgrounds over the top. If you want to insert a new slide into your presentation, the easiest way to do this is to use Ctrl + D to insert a duplicate of the slide with the relevant layout and then move and edit the slide.

But aside from the template constraint, you can edit the slides as you would a normal PowerPoint presentation.

Troubleshooting when converting Canva Presentation to PowerPoint

There are several limitations when you download Canva Presentations to PowerPoint:

  • Templates and themes: If you are downloading a presentation from Canva to use as a presentation in PowerPoint,  it will not have a template or theme set up for it.  However if you are using Canva to create a template, this will not be as much of an issue.  Refer to the section below for how to convert Canva template to a PowerPoint template
  • Animations : As noted above, animations do not come across when you download a Canva presentation to PowerPoint
  • Colors : When you download a presentation from Canva to PowerPoint, because there is not a template set up in PowerPoint for your presentation, you will not have easy access to the color palette that you downloaded from Canva. However if you are using PPT Productivity PowerPoint add-in , you can use the eyedropper feature on the Color Toolbar to select and save the colors from your presentation, making it much easier to reuse them if you need to make further updates.

Screenshot of using PPT Productivity color toolbar to match and save canva template colors

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Canva presentation tutorial: how to make presentation in canva + how to use canva for presentation.

Want to easily create presentation slides but are tired of the options that PowerPoint provides? In this Canva presentation tutorial I'll show you how to create amazing presentations using Canva.

Want to easily create presentation slides but are tired of the options that PowerPoint provides? In this Canva presentation tutorial I'll show you how to create amazing presentations using Canva. Canva is my absolute favorite graphic design tool for non-designers and it comes with a number of presentation templates that you can customize.

If you've been wondering how you can create better presentations with Canva, stay tuned until the end of this video to learn how to use Canva to create a presentation, and to get a FREE cheat sheet with 9 amazing online business tools like Canva that you can use in your online business to save time and boost your productivity. Also, make sure to subscribe and hit the bell to be notified every time I post a new video. With that said let's go ahead and jump right in.

First off, if you don't have a Canva account yet, just click on the link in the description box below to create one for free .

After you've logged in to your Canva account, click on the search bar, and search for 'presentation'. Canva has a number of presentation templates that you can customize, which include all of the kinds of slides that you might need, or if you prefer, you can select a blank template to start from scratch.

To view the available slides within the presentation template, just click on the three little dots on the top-right of the presentation template, and click through the available slides at the bottom. Don't worry too much which presentation template you choose since you can always change it later.

Once you've selected a presentation design to customize, click on 'use this template' to edit it. Just like with any regular Canva template, you can click on any of the elements on the page to customize them, such as the background, image and text, or click on any of the options from the left-hand side panel to add new photos, elements or text into your design.

Using Canva to create a presentation is easy because it's super straightforward. To edit any of the existing elements on a presentation slide, all you have to do is click on it, and view the available options up top. For instance, you can change the color of this square to any other one of your choice, you can change what this text says by double clicking on it, and writing something new, you can change the appearance of this text by editing its font, size and color, and you can either add an effect to this image, or add a new one altogether by clicking on 'photos' from the left-hand side panel, searching for the photo of your choice, and then drag-and-dropping it right where this original photo is.

For more details on how to customize a Canva design, make sure to watch my video on ' how to use Canva '. I'll leave the link to it in the description box below.

As you can see, Canva has a number of slide options that you can customize for your presentation, such as cover, icons, outline or table of contents, photo and text, quote, step-by-step, comparison, numbers, three column, bar chart, text only with multiple headings, question or statement page, title for a section, video, photo and text again, big photo and text, and so on and so forth.

You can customize each of these slides, as well as add presenter notes to them, move them up or down to reorder your presentation slides, copy the page to duplicate this slide's design, delete it altogether, and add a new blank page.

To add an animation to any of your slides, select the page that you want to animate, and select one of the animation options available. You can either add a new animation to new slide, or choose 'apply to all pages' to add the same animation to all slides.

Once you're done customizing the presentation you created in Canva, rename your design up top, and then click on the downward pointing arrow on the far right of the screen . There are a number of options that you can choose from: present, where you can present these slides right now where you either advance at your own pace, set speed to automatically play or view your notes and upcoming slides, present and record, where you can record yourself while talking over a presentation, and then share the video on YouTube, as an evergreen webinar, or with specific people, download these slides as an image, PDF, video or GIF, share a link to this presentation with others, publish this presentation as a beautiful, responsive website, or download your presentation as a PowerPoint document.

Now you know how to use Canva to create a presentation so you can easily create your presentation slides. As promised, to get a FREE cheat sheet with 9 brilliant tools like Canva that you can use in your online business to save time and boost your productivity, just click on the link in the description box below.

So what will the presentation you create in Canva be about? I'd love to hear your answer and start a conversation in the comments below, and also make sure to click on the link in the description box below to get your free cheat sheet , as well as a free 30-day trial of Canva Pro .

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HOW TO USE CANVA TO CREATE A PRESENTATION: Create Better Presentations With Canva Pro. Want to easily create presentation slides but are tired of the options that PowerPoint provides? In this Canva presentation tutorial I'll show you how to create amazing presentations using Canva. Canva is my absolute favorite graphic design tool for non-designers and it comes with a number of presentation templates that you can customize. If you've been wondering how you can create better presentations with Canva, stay tuned until the end of this video to learn how to use Canva to create a presentation.

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- How To Make Instagram Story Bingo Cards: https://youtu.be/FndNRDnoA7k

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How to Use Canva and PowerPoint for Presentations

Cover for Guide on How to Use Canva and PowerPoint for Presentations

Creating the perfect presentation design is a challenge that speakers often aim to achieve, only to find themselves lacking graphic design knowledge. Although high-tier options like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator help users worldwide to put their ideas into pixels, the reality is they are not user-friendly interfaces for people outside the graphic design industry, namely business professionals, marketers, and educators. Hence, the need to find an alternative for making powerful graphics to use in our presentations – and here’s where Canva comes into the picture.

This web-based graphic design tool has quickly become the preferred choice of teachers, social media influencers, and small business owners due to its free-tier plans and pro plans at a convenient subscription-based fee. 

In this article, we will see how to use Canva presentation in PowerPoint and how to export Canva to PPT, to create visually appealing presentations.

Table of Contents

Canva vs. Microsoft PowerPoint: Pros and Cons for Presenters

Designing with canva, how to export a canva presentation to powerpoint, how to use canva-made graphics in powerpoint, final words.

Although presenters often see Canva as an alternative to PowerPoint, the reality is that they differ in one single aspect: Canva is a graphic design tool, whereas PowerPoint is a presentation design software. Some of the tools available in PowerPoint are not there in Canva, and vice versa.

Canva vs PowerPoint

Going into more technical aspects, here are the Pros and Cons of working with either software as a presenter.

Pros of Canva as a Presentation Tool

User-friendly interface.

Canva’s drag-and-drop feature makes it easy for non-designers to create presentations by using its library of shapes, graphics, text styles, and other resources.

Wide Range of Templates

It offers a vast library of Canva templates, which can be easily customized in their online editor, saving time on design. There’s a con associated with this point, which we shall discuss later.

Magic Studio for Canva was released mid-Q3 this year with the idea of powering designs with AI tools. This tool is available in Canva search features and in the editor at the bottom right corner, which features the list options:

  • AI text generation
  • Suggested graphics to match your design
  • Suggested photos to match your design

Collaboration Feature

Allows multiple users to simultaneously work on the same presentation, which is great for small team projects. Compared with PowerPoint, it does not require all users to be Premium to collaborate online.

Web-Based Platform

Being an online platform, it allows users to work from any device with Internet access without needing software installation. This particularly helps users with legacy computers who cannot install current versions of Microsoft Office. 

Integrated Stock Library

Provides access to a broad selection of stock photos, illustrations, and icons within the platform. Just like with the Canva templates, there’s also a con to this point.

Customization Options

Users can upload images and fonts, enabling brand consistency across presentations. Note: The upload fonts feature is only available for Canva Pro users.

Photo Editing and Animation Features

Canva lets users tweak their graphics with simple-to-use controls. These options help us to adjust opacity, apply photo filters, add animation effects, add bevels and shadows, and more.

Cross-Platform Compatibility

Can export presentations to various formats (as a PDF document, as a video presentation in MP4 format, or even as images), making them viewable on different devices and platforms. The export options allow us to post directly into social media, create printables, post to the web, etc. While some export formats require an upgrade to a Canva Pro subscription (like the ability to export to SVG format), the basic export features are enough for simple presentations and beginners.

Cons of Canva as a Presentation Tool

Limited offline functionality.

Requires an internet connection for full functionality, which can be a limitation in areas with poor connectivity, for business people working on an airline flight, while using Airplane mode, or for people traveling in other zones without Internet access.

Fewer Animation and Transition Options

Unlike PowerPoint, the available options for animations and transitions are limited. Users can find this reiterative, which may be unappealing to using these effects in our presentations. 

Premium Content

Although the Canva library is extensive in terms of assets, the reality is that most of these elements are only available for premium users. This applies to templates, shapes, images (mostly), and exporting options. Resizing the graphics you create in Canva to repurpose your design is only available to premium users.

Template Overuse

Popular templates can be overused, making presentations look similar to many others. This is of particular interest to business professionals, as people tend to easily associate some designs as being made with Canva.

Design Decisions

Unlike using a PowerPoint template , you have to work your way with Canva content, as the PPT templates tend to be quite generic and do not offer tools for data representation. Consequently, you have to know how and where to introduce those elements on your own rather than working with a presentation template that already assigned the space for such graphics.

Lack of Advanced Multimedia Integration

Integrating complex multimedia elements like videos is not as seamless as in some desktop applications. You won’t find options to link to source elements; you need to upload the content to your personal Canva library and manually add the resource to the slide. Presenters can also lose third-party integrations via plugins for some multimedia resources.

Pros of PowerPoint as a Presentation Tool

Widespread use and familiarity.

PowerPoint is the leading market tool for presentations, making most audiences and presenters are familiar with it at a basic operational level. This can help us to outsource technical issues quickly rather than aiming to use web-based interfaces to share Canva-created content.

Offline Access

PowerPoint can be used offline, which is ideal for people traveling, areas where the Internet connection is unreliable, or simply because we want to focus on creating the slides rather than facing distractions via the Internet.

Integration with Other Microsoft Office Tools

Seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft products like Excel and Word, making it easy to import data and documents. This is ideal for creating complex graphics for data representation, where the content can be synced, importing databases, working with Gantt Charts in software like Microsoft Project, and more.

Also, Microsoft PowerPoint has the same text editing capabilities as Microsoft Word – a striking contrast with Canva’s limited features.

Templates and Design Options

This is PowerPoint’s forte: the capability of using third-party presentation templates, like the ones provided by SlideModel . Users can buy pre-designed slide decks from professional vendors and ease the need to make design-related decisions. On top of that, Microsoft already includes some basic templates with its 365 subscription.

Advanced Features

Offers a broad range of features, including detailed animations and transitions, which can enhance presentations. For example, the ability to work with SVG graphics allows presentation designers to make pixel-perfect presentations without losing image quality. This is available to all users, unlike Canva, which requires a subscription to unlock certain elements.

Multimedia Capabilities

Supports embedding of various multimedia elements like audio, video, and images directly into presentations. You can use hyperlinks to embed content or work with third-party plugins for specific tasks.

Extensive Support and Resources

As a long-established tool, users can find tutorials everywhere, support communities, and additional resources available online.

Cons of PowerPoint for Presenters

Some features can be complex to use, and the interface may be overwhelming for new users. In particular, this is linked to editing PowerPoint Shapes and graphs, working with Slide Master , applying advanced animation effects and so on.

Unlike Canva or Google Slides, PowerPoint requires purchasing Office 365 or a standalone license.

Heavy Files

PowerPoint files, especially those with multimedia content, can become large and difficult to share via email. As a side effect, those heavy files can be complicated to handle in computers that lack sufficient RAM and processing power. Moreover, they require significant free disk space on your PC.

Time-Consuming

Creating a high-quality presentation with custom animations and graphics can be time-consuming. That’s the reason why we highly recommend users work their way with PowerPoint templates, and mix and match designs to create a unique slide deck .

Learning Curve

Users need to invest time in learning the software to fully utilize its advanced features. This applies to both acquiring the knowledge and practicing the skills you learned. And still, for some users, it feels frustrating not to achieve results relatively quickly. 

In this section, we will learn how to use Canva to create graphics for a product presentation. The idea is to create placeholder graphics containing images of a product; then, we will export that content to continue creating our presentation in PowerPoint.

After creating our Canva account, we find ourselves at the Home screen. Go to Templates, and you will see something similar to this UI. 

Canva templates available on its website

We can go straight to the Presentations (16:9) option or use the search bar to locate the template we want. In this case, we will opt for that scenario and search “Product.”

how to edit presentation in canva

The images that show a little crown at the low right corner are premium templates, which means we cannot use them with a free account. We will pick a template that fits the needs of our presentation by clicking over it. At the contextual window that opens, select Customize this template .

Selecting a Canva template

The Canva builder may take a bit to load, especially if your internet connection is slow. You will find yourself with a window like this one, opened at the Design tab, which offers alternatives for other templates similar to the one you chose.

Design builder in Canva

The Styles tab allows us to quickly change the layout, altering color themes and fonts. Sometimes, that can suit our needs immediately; sometimes, it requires extra work to customize to our preferences.

Styles Tab in Canva

We can click on any element in this design and customize its content. Depending on the element type, the options are available for us. For this presentation, we will change the text and images, and alter font color at the button to make it stand out.

Customizing font color in Canva

Next, it’s time to replace the images. We can drag and drop the image into Canva, or we can go to the Uploads button and add the content from there.

Uploading images to Canva

In this case, we’re using DALL-E-generated images for this product presentation, you can also use illustrations, photos, videos, or Midjourney illustrations . Once the images are uploaded, drag and drop them to replace the images in the placeholder areas. To complete this design, we removed the shape that came with the template – you can add a new shape by going to Elements > Graphics .

Graphics tab in Canva

Learning how to use Canva for PowerPoint is pretty straightforward. Download your Canva design as a PowerPoint presentation, which you can do by accessing your design and going to the top-right corner to locate the button Share . Click on it, and then click on Download .

Under File Type , we will select PPTX , as it’s PowerPoint’s native format. Click on Download , and wait for the process of downloading the file to be completed. Depending on the graphic assets included, it can take a while.

How to export a Canva Presentation to PowerPoint

At this point, don’t be surprised if you’ll be prompted to upgrade your Canva plan (if you don’t have a premium account). The reason is that Canva will charge you for exporting what they call premium graphics, and since most of the Canva presentation templates use premium graphics, this will be a limitation when exporting your Canva slides to PowerPoint. 

A simple workaround is removing the premium graphics before exporting from Canva to PowerPoint. Although, take in mind this may affect the overall design of your presentation.

As you can see below, the PowerPoint file is entirely editable. Something to consider is that unless you have the font installed on your computer, PowerPoint will reassign to a generic font.

Exported Canva Presentation in PowerPoint

Remember the design we created before? Well, it’s time to use that image as part of a marketing deck presentation , which will represent a social media post to be used by the marketing team to promote the brand.

The first step is to download the design we created as PNG. We can close Canva after that.

Downloading Canva-made graphics as PNG format

We opened our PPT template, which is the Annual Marketing Plan PowerPoint Template , and customized the PowerPoint theme colors . Go to Insert > Pictures > This Device .

Inserting a picture into PowerPoint - Inserting an image from Canva into Annual Marketing Plan Slide template

Select the image we created in Canva and upload it here. We will add some image shadow effects via Shape Format, and a textbox below that describes what the image is about.

PowerPoint slide using Canva graphics - Example of new PowerPoint slide with a graphic created in Canva

And that’s how easily we can use graphics from Canva in our PowerPoint presentations. Remember, it’s best to work with PNG images rather than JPG to reduce file size and preserve image quality.

You can invite others to collaborate on your design by sharing a link to the editable design or by adding them via email as team members on your Canva account.

Canva uses standard cloud storage security measures to protect your data, but like any online platform, it’s important to use a strong password and follow good security practices.

There are two methods for this. You can upload a PPT template into Canva via the Canva Homepage by clicking on Projects , and then go to the Uploads folder. Drag and drop or click on Upload, as we’ve seen before. Once imported, you must click on that file to open it in the Canva editor. The second method is on the editor: go to the Uploads button and upload your PPT file as if it were an image or another media asset.

Yes, you can use SlideModel presentation templates in Canva. As a SlideModel subscriber, you can download .pptx files to import into Canva presentations. This way, you can enjoy the creative slide templates and graphics provided by SlideModel in your Canva presentations

Unfortunately, no, as Canva doesn’t have the same toolset to enable editing functions. That also applies to changing color, so we highly recommend you work with a final PPT file before switching to Canva.

Objects like charts, SmartArt, 3D objects, and WordArt aren’t supported in Canva and won’t be rendered if you upload a slide that contains them.

Yes, all users can download Canva presentations to PPTX format. In case the original Canva design isn’t a presentation file, like a banner or social media post, you won’t be able to resize for that output unless you have a premium account.

Yes, the file must be smaller than 70 MB, and you can import up to 300 slides.

Canva and PowerPoint can collaborate as complementary tools to help presenters overcome the limitations of each individual tool. It takes a while to create your desired workflow, but once that’s accomplished, you can elevate the quality of your PowerPoint or Google Slides presentations with Canva. 

We don’t advise using Canva as an alternative to PowerPoint as the current state-of-the-art indicates it won’t support data representation or other PowerPoint stellar tools that make part of most PPT templates. For more information, check our article about Canva alternatives and how to convert Canva to Google Slides .

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