10 Canva Hacks to Save You Time When Making Pinterest Pins
In this post, I will share all of my favorite Canva hacks that help speed up the process of creating Pinterest pins using Canva. I know many people watch my videos and still want to know how to make Canva images quickly.
So I made the Canva Pin Creation videos to show you how we create pins at Heather Farris and Co for our clients. Checkout both videos in this post and you’ll see hands-on how to do all these hacks.
https://youtu.be/VG_3WI8V-0Mhttps://youtu.be/jUM9FBnYojY
Canva Tip #1
This happens to me a lot. When designing something for YouTube or Facebook, I may see an element I want to use in my Pinterest pins later on.
Instead of adding the item to a new image and the element getting lost in the flux of all my designs, I add the particular element to a folder. You cannot add moving elements to folders, but you can add other elements to a folder.
So if you like the polka dot background, you can click on the three dots on the top right corner of the image. This opens a drop-down column, and you can add it to likes or to a folder. You can add this background to a folder you have already created or create a new folder.
Something else that I really like with this is Magic Recommendations. If you choose one design, Canva will find more designs for you along the same lines. Magic Recommendations are basically the recommendations that match the designs that you have already picked out.
Something else that I really like doing is clicking on a design and clicking on the ‘See more like this’ option in the drop-down that appears.
RELATED: How to Create Pins for Pinterest in Canv – A Pinterest Image Workflow to Save Time
Canva Tip #2
My second tip is for Mac users. This tip works for any design on Canva, including texts, elements, and photos.
You can sometimes get stuck in the guidelines if you have two elements of the same kind.
To create a bigger gap, you can hold down the command button on the keyboard when you are dragging an element. You can freely move an element without being forced into the design guidelines for the element by Canva.
Press shift and hold down the command key to move the element around. Then let go of your mouse click and let go of your command key, and you have freely moved the element around without being stuck in the design guidelines.
Canva Tip #3
If you click and drag, you can select all of the elements on the screen. This is really cool if you have some text on the screen and you want it to lock a few elements and keep them in place, but you still want to move around other elements on the screen.
For example, if you have some text on the screen and some other elements. You can click, drag and select your elements and group them. Then you can move them around on the screen better.
RELATED: How to Create Fresh Pins for Pinterest Using Canva
Canva Tip #4
The next tip I want to talk about is the use of the lock key. If you want to lock elements in place and keep them from being moved, you simply need to select them and then click the lock key.
We don’t use it a lot for templates that we sell, but it’s definitely used for templates that we create in-house, especially if clients are also using those templates. This makes it easier for the design to stay in the same place.
Canva Tip #5
The next thing that I like is the keys on the keyboard. If you want to add text to your design really quickly, all you have to do is to push the ‘T’ key on your keyboard, and it will automatically add text to your design.
Know that the text is going to be whatever your last used text is. So, if I add text again, it is going to be whatever the last used font was. If you add text really quickly, you should know what the last used font was.
Other quick keystroke shortcuts:
- Add rectangles by typing ‘R’
- Add circles by typing the ‘C’
- Add lines by typing ‘L’
Canva Tip #6
One thing that I really like and most people don’t realize is that you can copy and paste elements between designs. So, If you have a design that you like and you are trying to create new designs based on that, you can go to that design and click ‘Ctrl C’ or ‘Command C’ and bring it over to your new design with ‘Ctrl V’ or ‘Command V.’ This will paste over to your new design. The formatting and size will remain the same.
If I find something that I really like on the pre-made templates within Canva that I really want to put into my own design but don’t want to use their design as my starting point, I will just copy and paste those specific elements.
RELATED: 6 Pinterest Tools I Use as a Pinterest Manager That Won’t Break the Bank
Canva Tip #7
This hack is something that you can do when you are creating multiple designs in the same one. I use this tip often when I’m putting the URL on my Pinterest images in a series. I want the placement or the logo in the same place on each image page of a single design.
Click on the element and press ‘Ctrl C’ or ‘Command C.’ Then go to the next item and click on it and press ‘Ctrl V’, and it will place in the exact same place. This is super nifty when it comes to inserting logos on designs. This tip helps when I am bulk designing pins for clients.
Canva Tip #8
One thing that I really like is, using the ‘elements’ feature for the background image. Because I use the grids that hold images, I actually have to put an image in it. Sometimes when you add your logo to the image, your logo wants to take the place of the background image instead of the image that you want already there.
You can just click ‘Ctrl Z’ or ‘Command Z’ and undo that action. Then you just hold the command key and move your logo to the right spot. Then undo your finger click on your mouse and undo holding the command key; the logo will stay on top. This tip will allow you to place your logo without it taking the place of your background image.
RELATED: Will Pinterest Idea Pins Help You Grow Your Brand?
Canva Tip #9
In our monthly pin template designs, we have multiple images in each design. What many people don’t realize that they can do is, instead of scrolling through the different templates, you can click on the grid template on the bottom of the page, and you can see all of the images in that design in a smaller view. These can actually be dragged around and be reorganized.
Canva Tip #10
My last tip for you is to publish the pin straight from Canva. You can schedule and publish your pins straight to Pinterest without having to download and upload them and deal with all of that.
If you want to do this, you will have to connect your Pinterest account. Then add your prewritten pin title. Then you add which page you wish to publish. Next, you need to write that description and put in your URL. Then you are going to choose your date and time and click done.
In the end, you need to click ‘schedule post,’ and Canva will schedule it for you. This tip is so neat!
RELATED: I Tested Pinterest Approved Schedulers So You Don’t Have To
Final thoughts
I really hope that these quick Canva hacks help you in designing your pins or using our templates for your own Pinterest image creation process.
If you want to be able to convert your Canva designs to PSD files for use in photoshop, here’s a bonus post and video you can check out below.
RELATED: How to Convert Canva Templates to PSD Files for Free
Pin It For Later
Heather Farris went to school for accounting and worked for years in banking and finance. After finding all of that entirely too boring she started her first blog in her basement in August of 2016. She has started 3 blogs in the marketing, motherhood and travel niches and used Pinterest to grow them all. She quickly became the go-to Pinterest strategist in her peer circles and has been implementing strategies, driving traffic and sales through organic and paid tactics for her clients. On this blog and her YouTube channel, as a renowned Pinterest marketing expert, she educates the public about clear and transparent marketing strategies to help them to grow on Pinterest and in other places online.
