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An easy guide to creating a presentation in Canva

An easy guide to creating a presentation in Canva

Group of business people talking around a meeting table

Creating a presentation⁠(opens in a new tab or window) is a key element for many positions these days whether you're an executive, speaker, or working in a professional setting. Getting your message across in a concise and visually appealing manner is a challenge for many people—but it doesn't need to be.

We've put together the ultimate guide to creating a presentation in Canva to help you feel confident and make the best impression while communicating successfully.

An easy guide to creating a presentation in Canva

1. Be consistent

Creating a style that works with your content and not against it is important. Your audience will appreciate a presentation that's easy on the eyes and flows from slide to slide or slide template⁠(opens in a new tab or window). Jarring the presentation with multiple images isn't necessary.

Some tips for consistency:

Use the same 'banner' or title font throughout your design.
Have the same 'frame' or 'grid' throughout your design.
Apply the same background throughout your design.
Use consistent fonts

2. Work smarter, not harder

Create a template page for your presentation to keep all the points above about consistency in line. Take a cue from nature with beauty in repetition. Making one fantastic slide and repeating enables the viewer to pick up other elements of your presentation without having to rethink each slide separately.

Canva's presentation templates⁠(opens in a new tab or window) come in multiple pages, with each page designed to reflect the selected theme. Check out Red and White Restaurant Elegant Presentation⁠(opens in a new tab or window) and Dark Green Interiors Photo Residential Architecture Presentation⁠(opens in a new tab or window) to start, and tweak as needed.

3. Creating your title page

10 Disruptive Quotes for Entrepreneurs⁠(opens in a new tab or window) from Guy Kawasaki⁠(opens in a new tab or window)

Your title slide is your calling card for the whole presentation and should convey the overall feeling of your presentation. It should entice people to listen through the whole presentation. Take, for example, Guy Kawasaki's 10 Disruptive Quotes for Entrepreneurs presentation, above. At a glance, the title page brings to mind growth and change. This simple but powerful presentation has earned 365,816 views over time—and almost 275,000 people have embedded it into blog posts.

These templates, Red Modern Marketing Presentation⁠(opens in a new tab or window) and Orange Colourful Brush Strokes Creative Presentation⁠(opens in a new tab or window), feature strong title pages that immediately grab your audience's attention.

4. Design for visual appeal

Be guided by the old adage: "Keep it simple, sweetie"⁠(opens in a new tab or window), or KISS. Don't overcomplicate your presentation. More elements don't necessarily mean better design—this can be visual clutter. KISS your way to success with these tips:

Using visuals instead of text
Reducing the amount of text
Using a consistent color palette⁠(opens in a new tab or window)
Don’t use bullet points - try putting one point per slide

The Pasta Dishes Photo Collage Wide Presentation⁠(opens in a new tab or window) and the Springtime Mother and Daughter Wide Presentation⁠(opens in a new tab or window) may have a simple color palette with minimal text, but still packs quite the punch.

5. Show it off

When you're ready, you can present directly from Canva. Click on Publish and choose the suggested option Present.

Under the Present option, you can further enhance how your presentation will look. Choose a transition style, or how the presentation will look when you move from one slide to another. You can also choose to manually move the slides yourself, or set it to move forward automatically.

A cool feature of Canva's Presentation mode is the Presenter view, where you have a screen to view your notes, a timer, and preview of the upcoming slides. No more messy notecards or papers to help you remember what you need to say.