Finding your way around the Home Page in Canva

Canva 101 | Lesson 2

In Lesson 1 we created our brand new Canva account and now we are ready to begin exploring the world of Canva. Finding our way around the Home Screen in Canva is vital and this lesson introduces us to the various menu items and pages linked to the Home Page.

Updating the app

Before we continue just a note that the Canva app is constantly being refined and updated and screen shots may differ. I’m also using the Canva Pro app so some of my screens may look slightly different. Updating your app from time to time is definitely recommended as Canva is always adding new features.

New content

You don’t need to update the app to see all the new content and designs because new content is always being shared. Whether you are starting from scratch with the dreaded blank page or using an existing template or design to create something, new content is always available for you to browse for inspiration.

So when its time to update, click on Update App in the top right hand corner of the Home Page. It’s that easy!

Finding your way around the Home Page’s Main Menu

So are you ready to get going?

The Main menu is situated on the left hand side of your page in the sidebar and contains all the most frequent go-to pages. A hamburger menu at the top left of the screen also allows you to hide the main menu if you find it distracting while you work. A simple click will hide or unhide it.

The Home menu item allows navigation back to the home page. If you are on another page it will display as Back to Home like below.

Navigating the Page

Right in the centre of the page you will see the Search functionality where you can search by Key Words or by type of document. This is where it does indeed get magical and a world of possibilities opens to us. And if you are a creative like me you get lost in beautiful templates where the only limit is your own creativity.

Before you are tempted to explore to your heart’s content let’s complete our tour of the home page. At the foot of the page on the left-hand side you will see 2 additional menu items. Let’s explore those next.

Invite Members

This allows you to invite others to collaborate with you on projects. It therefore eliminates the need to send emails backwards and forwards. More about working in Teams later.

Trash

The Trash button is very important because it can be the fine line between you and disaster. If you delete a design it will be retained in your Trash for 30 days, allowing you to recover and restore it. Note that if you recover any deigns you will find them in the Projects folder.

Once you have opened the Trash folder click on the designs, images or videos you want to recover. (You can also permanently delete designs, videos or images here.)

• Hover over the item and click on *** that then appears. Select and click either Delete permanently or Restore and voila.

Account settings, Notifications, Help and More

Moving across to the top right hand side of the page you see additional options:

Click on the Account settings icon to open up a Help button. Clicking on this button takes you directly to the Help Center with the option to type in your questions, navigate some pre-selected Help topics, browse top articles, solve an issue or access the Design School. Design School is full of handy design tips and tricks and inspiration. Inspiration really is around every corner in this app. No need for those expensive graphic design courses here.

Account settings is always where the administrative part of the app are housed. Find login and security, e-mail preferences, team details, people, groups, billing and plans, reports, permissions etc.

Notifications which is where your tasks and activities appear.

Create a design again allows you to search by typing in some text, explore some suggested templates or start a new custom design by size.

Profile is a shortcut to Account settings, Help which links in to the Help Center, the Privacy policy and signing out.

How’s it going finding your way around the Home page in Canva? Getting there? There’s just a little more.

Just below this are 2 more buttons: Custom size and Upload. Upload enables you to import photos, documents, files or videos. You can also drag and drop or choose files. It is quite simply as easy as it says it is below.

Customise on the other hand is for those who want to start a new project from a blank page. Although this can be rather daunting if you are just starting out never say never…

Help at Hand

Tucked away in the bottom right hand corner is a ? which is a real gem. Not only does it also link in to the Help Center but you can type in questions for some quick on screen help while you are designing. No need to ever get stuck.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson about finding your way around the Home page in Canva. Please join me in Lesson 3 for a look at the Projects Page. In case you missed it here is also the link to lesson 1: CANVA 101 | Lesson 1 | Creating Your Account.

Canva really is incredibly flexible and caters to newbies and professionals alike. If you are inspired to start creating please drop me a comment below and let’s grow together.