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Setting Up Canva on Desktop and Mobile

Canva is a fantastic platform that is available to everyone and is, in particular, ideal for small business owners. In this chapter, you will be introduced to Canva as well as how to set up your account, and we will go through the main differences between Free and Pro, so you can decide which is best for you. You will also have the chance to look at both mobile and desktop platforms, as there are some slight differences, and we will look at the Content Planner, which is Canva's social media scheduling tool.

In this chapter we are going to cover the following main topics:

• What is Canva?
• Free versus Pro - what's the difference?
• Setting up your Canva account
• Using the mobile version of Canva
• Scheduling content with the Content Planner
• Setting up folders for organization

By the end of this chapter, you will have set up your Canva account, created folders to organize your designs, understood the difference between the two different accounts as well as the desktop and mobile versions, and will be ready to get creating and schedule your content.

Technical requirements

To complete this chapter, you only need to have a working desktop computer or laptop and mobile phone (if you would like to look at the mobile version, but not compulsory) as well as access to an internet connection. There are no requirements when it comes to design experience; Canva has been created to be accessible by everyone, and anyone of any age or ability can use and create with Canva. This is why it has become such a popular platform - anyone can create beautiful designs.

What is Canva?

Canva is a design platform where you can create your own designs using a drag-and-drop system. It includes hundreds of thousands of images, elements, fonts, shapes, and templates; the majority are available free for you to use, but you can upgrade to a paid subscription to gain access to everything.

The things you can create include social media designs, book covers, calendars, planners, t-shirt designs, and posters. Every type of design has its own sizing within Canva so you can just pick the size, choose a suitable template, and get designing. Templates and elements are created by freelance designers as well as in-house designers at Canva. It is a multi-purpose platform, meaning it is available both as a website, desktop app, and mobile app, all connected to help make designing easier for the everyday person.

Now you know what you need to set up an account and you have an understanding of what Canva is, let's look at the different types of accounts that are available to you.

Free versus Pro - what's the difference?

Canva has two main accounts, Free and Pro. Free is a free-to-open account and you have access to a lot of features to get designing straight away. With the option of purchasing Pro elements and templates if you would like to, Pro is a paid account that gives you access to everything including some amazing features that are really useful to those wanting to use Canva daily. The Pro account is, at the time of writing this book, $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year (www.canva.com).

Canva Free benefits

The following are the benefits of Canva Free:

• 250,000+ templates
• Hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphics
• 5 GB of cloud storage space
• Unlimited folders
• 100+ design styles: social media posts, posters, invites, banners, and more

Canva Pro benefits

The following are the benefits of Canva Pro:

• In Pro, you get everything that you get for Free, plus the following:
  • Resize your designs with the Magic Resize tool
  • 610,000+ templates, with new designs added daily
  • 100+ million images, videos, audio, and graphics
  • Full access to the complete brand kit
  • Background Remover tools for both images and video
  • Full access to the Content planner
  • Unlimited folders
  • 100 GB cloud storage space

Let's look at how you can now set up your Canva account.

Setting up your Canva account

To set up a Canva account (you may already have one), follow these steps:

1. Go to www.canva.com on your computer or tablet; once there, you will see the screen as shown in Figure 1.1:

Figure 1.1 - Home page screen in Canva

You then have a choice of signing up for a Free Canva account or starting a free 30-day trial of Pro. I would recommend going for the Free account with a view of trying the free trial later once you are familiar with the platform.

1. Next, select the Sign up button in the top-right corner and the popup will appear as shown in Figure 1.2:

Figure 1.2 - Canva Sign-up popup

You will then be able to select how you would like to sign up. I would recommend using an existing email address by clicking the purple box that says Continue with email. This will then take you to a password screen where you can create a secure password for the account. Don't forget to make a note of which email address you have used and the password created.

1. You will then be taken to the Canva home screen ready to get your new account set up; it will look like this:

Figure 1.3 - The Canva home screen after logging in

Once you have your new account set up and you are logged in, I would always advise you to have a good look around, check out the menu on the left, scroll through the sections under the search bar in the middle, and familiarize yourself with the layout of the home screen; you will see this a lot on your design journey. Don't worry about going too deep into the features as we will be covering these later in the book, but for now, check out your new design platform.

Next, we'll have a look at setting up and using the mobile version of Canva as this works really well with the website.

Using the mobile version of Canva

At this point, I would like to talk a bit about the Canva mobile app, as the majority of people are now using mobiles over desktop computers for everyday life and work, so it is important to get this app set up as well. You can use the same login details that you used for the desktop/web version of Canva and when you do, all of your designs, uploads, images, and branding are carried across, so anything you create on your desktop will be available to you through the mobile app on your phone. There are a few small differences and not all features are carried over to the mobile app. The main difference is the obvious one really: the screen size. On our computers and desktop screens, we can see so much more and can design more complex projects this way. Using your mobile, you are restricted to a smaller screen, so it's perfect for downloading designs and scheduling or uploading to social media on the go.

To get the Canva mobile app, you will need access to either the App Store on Apple or Google Play Store on Android phones. It will often appear as an advert at the top of the page. Select Canva and log in using your Canva login details.

Figure 1.4 - Canva App Store view

It will then open up on your phone and you will see a screen similar to this one:

Figure 1.5 - Canva for mobile home screen

There are a few small differences between the desktop version and mobile version of Canva, including the following:

• The main menu is across the bottom rather than the left side, and the Create a design button is the small purple circle in the bottom-right corner:

Figure 1.6 - Mobile version main menu

• When designing, all the template features are along the bottom rather than the top:

Figure 1.7 - Mobile version design features

• To access features when you are working on a design, you select the small purple circle in the bottom left and the elements are accessible from there, and to view all your pages together, there is a white circle with a number in a square in it, on the right of the screen:

Figure 1.8 - Mobile version create button and view all pages button

Overall, they are very similar, and...