How to Export a Digital Planner from Canva

The process to export a digital planner from Canva is a simple and rewarding one! Exporting means you've done the work and created your digital planner complete with hyperlinks (and a huge “well done” to you!). I'll break down the process of exporting your digital planner correctly and add some “quality control” measures that I recommend you put in place.

**Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you**

Prior to Exporting

Before exporting your digital planner, you'll want to ensure that you've included the key elements for a digital planner:

• The Cover Page
• The Layout (Vertical or Horizontal)
• The Index Pages
• The Tabs
• The Hyperlinks

If any of these steps are incomplete, you will want to finish them before exporting your digital planner. Remember—any PDF can be uploaded to a note annotation app. You are selling the ease of navigation provided through tabs, hyperlinks, and index pages to your end user.

Exporting a Digital Planner from Canva

When your digital planner is complete and hyperlinked, you will want to export it as a PDF. That PDF can then be uploaded to a note-annotation app, like Goodnotes or Noteshelf, and manipulated digitally to simulate a traditional paper planner. To export the document:

• Navigate to your digital planner in your Canva Dashboard, and select it to open.
• Select “Share” in the upper right-hand corner
• Select “Download“

• Use the drop-down menu under “File Type” to select “PDF Standard“.

• Ensure that the “Flatten PDF” box is unchecked, and select “Download“

If you were to flatten the PDF, your hyperlinks would not work. If you accidentally flatten the PDF before downloading, don't panic. Just delete the previously downloaded file from your computer and repeat the exporting process, ensuring you do not check the “Flatten PDF” box.

• Canva will now download your document. When it's ready, your “File Folder” box will open, asking where you want to save the file. Navigate to the file you want to save the digital planner to, or create a new folder for this project and save the document. Make sure you can find it later!

The exported PDF that is now saved to your computer is your digital planner! If the creation process was followed correctly – when the PDF is uploaded to a note annotation app the hyperlinks will provide navigation around the planner.

However, if you are selling this digital planner, it is imperative that you test it before listing it. Let's cover the whys and hows of testing your digital planner.

Testing a Digital Planner

Ya'll please do not upload a product to your shop that has not been tested. Yes, mistakes happen, and you are bound to have some to fix after you've listed them at some point, but not testing your product thoroughly can be a nightmare for your Etsy shop.

Why Testing is a Must

Uploading an untested and potentially unworking digital planner to your shop can cause a ripple effect. I get it—maybe your shop is new, and you know you don't have a lot of eyeballs yet. The goal, after all, is to steadily add products to your shop so the Etsy algorithm will categorize you appropriately. However, cutting corners to increase your shop listing numbers is not the way to go about it.

I can assure you that even if you create a perfect product, you will have customers who have issues either receiving the product, uploading the product, or using the product. That's part of the deal. But, adding on top of that disgruntled customers who purchased a product with some bad hyperlinks in it, it's a whole new ball game. Untested products can lead to:

Bad Reviews

Bad reviews on Etsy can really hurt your store. You would think that if a customer reached out with an issue and you responded in a timely manner with a solution, they would consider leaving you a good review. However, humans are anything but predictable, and sometimes, they will still give you a bad review.

The point is – if you take the extra 10 minutes to test your product you are eliminating the chance for there to be errors outside of the normal human error that you will naturally deal with.

Extra Work

Depending on how you are delivering your product, having to go in and edit a hyperlink after listing it can lead to a lot of extra work. Once the bad link(s) is identified, you'll need to go into your project on Canva and edit accordingly. And, if that bad link is on one of your tabs, you'll need to update that link on every tab, or delete all of your tabs, edit the link, and then copy and paste the new tabs to every page.

Want to learn more? Join the Make Digital Planners with Samantha Facebook group! I am in there daily, answering questions and finding solutions for you to create the best digital planners to sell!

While I understand that you would have to do this even if you found the error in testing, the extra work comes in when you edit the listing. If you uploaded your PDF directly to Etsy, you can swap out one file for the other. If you created a deliverable to deliver your product, you must edit the link on that file.

Oh – and if you have the planner listed in other locations – you will need to update those accordingly as well.

Added Stress

User error will occur at some point during your digital product selling journey. It's inevitable. I don't know about you – but I panic when I receive an email from a customer that something isn't working. While I'm usually relieved when it's user error, I still feel the stress to get them a quick reply.

If you choose to add your products to your shop without testing them, you are just opening the door to more emails and stress to get the error corrected. It's just bad practice to list an untested product, in my opinion.

How to Test a Digital Planner

So, now that you fear ever listing an untested product in your shop let's cover how to test. Ideally, you will test the digital planner using a note annotation app like your end user would do. If that isn't an option, you can also test the PDF on your computer.

Testing in a Note Annotation App

The preferred and most thorough way to test your digital planner is using a note annotation app. Your digital planner should be compatible with all note annotation apps, as long as they accept a PDF as an upload. Testing in the note annotation app provides:

• A first-hand account of how your product uploads to the note annotation app.
• The opportunity to experience any potential errors with using the digital planner (like ensuring the end user is in “Read-Only” mode rather than “Edit” mode on Goodnotes to be able to use the hyperlinks…)
• The best way to test your product is as your end user will use it.

If you notice some settings that need to be updated, you can create a file like a Google doc with the directions for adjusting that setting. Saving this file in a folder on your computer will allow you to copy and paste the response if/when needed.

Testing on a Computer

If testing on a tablet using a note annotation app will not work, opening the PDF on your computer will also allow you to test that the hyperlinks work as they should. Simply open the PDF on your computer and “click” each link to ensure you are taken to the correct page.

This process will ensure that all your hyperlinks are correct before listing your product for sale. It just doesn't provide you, the creator, the same user experience your customers will have. Either way works – just test the planner before listing it.

Your Next Steps

Once you have exported your digital planner from Canva, it's time to get it listed! Whether you list them on your website or in an Etsy shop, you'll want to create the necessary items to list them for sale properly.

I suggest creating your mockups and videos, deliverables, and researching Etsy SEO (such as titles, tags and descriptions) prior to ever logging on to Etsy. If you need help with your digital planner journey, feel free to reach out via our Facebook group. You've got this!