Jennifer Blair: And I'm gonna start the webinar. Thanks so much again. And I'll be in touch this afternoon. Okay.
Julie Edwards: Hello, and welcome everyone. I see you all starting to join us. Thank you.
Julie Edwards: Come on in we'll get started here in a few minutes. We open the room a little bit early because there's a huge registration for this webinar today. So we wanna give everybody some time to come in and get settled.
Julie Edwards: Feel free if you would like to hop over to the chat and say, Hi, let us know where you're from. We do publish the chat. Excuse me. We publish the Chat Transcript on the blog after, because there's so much good information that goes back and forth. So you don't have to use the chat if you don't want to. But if you would like to, you are certainly welcome.
Julie Edwards: Hello, Texas coming in first today. Hi, Georgia, State, Maine.
Julie Edwards: You guys got hammered with some weather. Maine.
Julie Edwards: Hey, Missouri? Actually, this is the South, too. A lot of people are getting hammered with weather. Hello, Utah!
Julie Edwards: This webinar is an hour. So I see someone asking, how long? An hour? Hello! From very wet Philadelphia, hey? South Carolina.
Julie Edwards: hey? New Hampshire.
Julie Edwards: Virginia, North Carolina. Hi, everybody! Hi! Connecticut! We're going to get started here in about 3 min. But we have a
Julie Edwards: big registration for this webinar. So we're opening the room a little bit early today. Hello, Jamaica! Nice to see you. That sounds really nice.
Julie Edwards: hi! New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina. High flagstaff! One of my favorite places.
Julie Edwards: hey? Puerto Rico. Nice to see you. Limerick, Ireland! Wow! Hello! We've got people from all over. Oh, I'm so delighted. Hey, Canada!
Julie Edwards: This is great high New Zealand, wow!
Julie Edwards: Hey, Shrewsbury.
Julie Edwards: that's I worked in Shrewsbury for a summer. I grew up in Worcester, right right south of Worcester, and hello from Trinidad and Tobago. Wow! This is amazing.
Julie Edwards: so nice to see so many of our international colleagues on the call.
Julie Edwards: Hello, Montana! My own state, hey? Arkansas.
Julie Edwards: North Dakota
Julie Edwards: Valley Forge, Hay, Alaska.
Julie Edwards: This may be the webinar where we get somebody from all 50 States. I'm I've been waiting for that. I've been doing these webinars for 4 years, and we've come close. We had 46 out of 50 States 1 one time.
Julie Edwards: hey, Louisiana, hey, Quincy! Pay New Mexico!
Julie Edwards: Hi, Wyoming.
Julie Edwards: Jersey! Hello!
Julie Edwards: So nice to see. I'll be I. Those of you who have done webinars with me before know that I love this little part. It's like the nerdy version of the license plate game, and I have had the good fortune to be able to travel
Julie Edwards: all over the Us. So it's so fun seeing seeing all these places that's stir up such good memories.
Julie Edwards: We're going to get started here in just about a minute and
Julie Edwards: and take off with actually it is. It's noon here in the mountains. And so we are gonna going to get started. I am Julie Edwards, and I want to thank you for joining us today. I'm a librarian and instructional designer with niche Academy. Welcome to this first webinar of 2024. I am so delighted to see so many of you here today.
Julie Edwards: Welcome to this webinar on canva, 2 for libraries. Page layout design. This is going to be a really exciting one, a little bit different from what we've done in the past. Gonna be a live demonstration lots of time for questions.
Julie Edwards: And an opportunity. We are recording this. You can share it with your colleagues after so a little bit outside of our normal webinar, but lots of great information coming at you. So before we start, let me introduce Niche Academy. We are an easy to use all in one learning platform to help libraries create and deliver effective training and measure success.
Julie Edwards: Our platform is the perfect tool. If you are looking to increase your E resour usage, move, programming or information literacy, instruction online and deliver and track. I'm sorry I lost my face here. Deliver and track training for staff and student employee development. If you're interested in finding out more about our e-learning solution chatting with a member of our team. Hearing what colleagues in other libraries have to say, I will drop a link to our website in the chat, and you can learn more about us.
Julie Edwards: As I said, we are recording this webinar. I will make the recording the slides. Actually, there are no slides, because this is a live demonstration. I will make the recording the handout that Jennifer has prepared for us the Chat Transcript and the audio transcript available on our blog, and you will all get an email from me. When that is ready
Julie Edwards: you can turn on closed captioning at the bottom of the screen by clicking on the live transcript button. If you would like to use that, there are many, many of us here today, so already close to 800 of us, please use the chat to share ideas with each other. But if you have a question
Julie Edwards: for Jennifer, please use the question and answer box, and that way. I don't lose questions in the chat, and when Jen Jennifer is going to take questions throughout the webinar, and so feel free to drop any questions in the QA. Box, and I will moderate those during the question times.
Julie Edwards: This webinar is part of our
Julie Edwards: commitment to solving bigger problems together reaching out to librarians all across the world. We have a whole bunch of great webinars planned for 2024. They're all the first 3 months are on our blog, and I will drop a link to that in the chat as well.
Julie Edwards: so that you have access to those. So without further ado, our presenter to day is Jennifer Blair. Jennifer is the head of user
Julie Edwards: services, librarian and associate professor at Aziza Pacific University. Her role is dedicated to the user experience, including marketing, the library and teaching. She has extensive experience teaching online courses in design and computer literacy.
Julie Edwards: She holds A BA in graphic design, an Ma. In education, with an emphasis in educational multimedia and an MS. And library information studies her experience in academic and public libraries as well as work, experience in art and design, allow her to employ visionary strategies to enrich progress and enhance advancement for her students. She is going to do for us today as this webinar, an online class to show some tips and tricks for using canva for libraries.
Julie Edwards: With that I will inch turn the webinar over to Jennifer.
Jennifer Blair: Thank you so much, and I'm so glad that there are so many participants from all over the world. This is probably no, this is my single biggest webinar I've ever presented. So this proves that this is a very high need, and, as Julie had just stated, this is going to be a little bit different than a normal webinar, where most of the time I'm doing all the talking
and questions are at the end. This is a tutorial class format in which I will be showing you
Jennifer Blair: throughout the best tips that you can do or use. Using the platform or the web application canva which has revolutionized
Jennifer Blair: design aspects that can be used for social media, for print files, pretty much anything that you need, and it available freely at. There is a paid subscription which I'll go over in a second. But Canva allows libraries who say can't afford which is most most cases can't afford the expensive design software
Jennifer Blair: that is available for graphic designers. And and frankly, if you don't have design, experience can be very intimidating. So canva makes it easier for those that don't have graphic design experience and just want to learn. And it allows you access to thousands, probably millions of templates that you can use to help
Jennifer Blair: you gain confidence before creating. Say, a blank canvas from scratch. So let's go ahead and get started.
Jennifer Blair: As Julie said. I encourage you in the QA. To type in your questions throughout each section or each page that I'm going to show when I'm done with that section, introducing it and going over the details. I will clearly state that I'm opening it up for questions before I move on to the next section. So let me do a switch here. So give me one technical minutes.
Julie Edwards: And, Jennifer, while you're doing that, some one has asked if they can follow along with their own canva account.
Jennifer Blair: Yes.
Jennifer Blair: yes, absolutely so. Great question. If you are, have already registered your own canva account, I encourage you to follow along. If you haven't created one. You can still use the archive, the recording when you get it, and but it is. I'm trying to make it as easy as possible to follow along. If you're not, you don't have your account open.
Jennifer Blair: Okay, so I am already logged in. So let's pretend, if you are not logged in that. This is what your page looks like, and this is the home page. Or actually let me just click on the logo. It may look a little bit different.
Jennifer Blair: Nope, this is the homepage, just double checking. Sometimes they do updates. So this is what your homepage will look like once you are logged in. And what I want you to notice is this center, beautiful, gradient bar here as well as the create button. This is going to be your best friend, when you open up canva. The create a design button.
Jennifer Blair: If you notice, we'll have a drop-down menu, and you can do a search.
But at the very top is a short cut of the most commonly used designs.
Jennifer Blair: In the format, in the size that you need. whereas here let me just click away here. whereas here in the gradient bar, you can also do a search.
Jennifer Blair: and it has templates and projects. But probably the easiest way to use the bar. Here is
Jennifer Blair: the buttons below.
Jennifer Blair: These may not be included in the create a design button because they may be used a little bit less so, for example, presentations, most of you probably use Powerpoint. So that may be a little bit less used. But it does give you the most common social media videos, print products, even a website. Yes, if you want to create a website
Jennifer Blair: either for yourself or for your library, canva does give you that option, and even then you can click on more, and it gives you all the options that you need.
Jennifer Blair: one of the common ones that libraries are gaining in popularity for quite some time now are infographics. These are long posters where you present information in an easy to follow format and it can be used digitally, or you can literally print it out and put it up in your library. So
Jennifer Blair: there are many designs to choose from. I'm going to cover today the most common ones, which will be for social media as well as creating a standard flyer, which in my country us is sized 8 and a half by 11 inches. Yours may be a little bit different where you're from, but just pretend as if it's your standard size, whatever that may be
so before I move on to the next section.
Jennifer Blair: I want to highlight the plans and pricing, because when I show you in a minute the how to use the templates it will have.
Jennifer Blair: or a referral to the pro account. and when you know it's a pro account, it'll have a little crown next to it. When you're using templates, and that lets you know that this is not within the free account. And that if you don't have a pro account you will have to pay, or it will block you from being able to say, download the image or the design that you create. So
Jennifer Blair: when I show that it'll make a lot more sense. So for most of you. For the when you first create an account you will be using the free account. But I did. Wanna highlight that if you go to you can possibly get a pro account. If you are a library that in most cases is nonprofit. There may be some business libraries out there where you may not qualify to get a pro account for free
Jennifer Blair: but with canva. Let's just click on pro.
Jennifer Blair: Let's just get those cookies out of the way. And canva pro just gives you access to more designs more templates, and which is great in the very beginning. But as you build your design skills, you will become more comfortable in using canva to create from scratch. So if you look at the prices here.
Jennifer Blair: canva pro. That's the standard price they may not mention it here, but I would reach out to them because they do have an application process for applying as a nonprofit
Jennifer Blair: in which you can get the canva pro account for free.
Jennifer Blair: and I've heard from many libraries that it is pretty easy to apply and get approval, so I would encourage you to go ahead and do that on your own time. So let's just go back
Jennifer Blair: to the home page.
Jennifer Blair: and one thing I want to notice or want you to notice is the left side menu. Here
Jennifer Blair: it defaults to the home page. But under here, you will notice, projects templates. Brand. Notice that little crown.
Jennifer Blair: The crown is what you will see in the template designs and other design elements, such as photos that may not be available if you have just the free account. So one of the primary things I want you to notice is projects. This is similar to say, if you have a Google suite, or just creating a folder on your computer for saving files
Jennifer Blair: when you design something in canva. It automatically saves it within the canva platform. You don't have to go out of your way to save it to a new file, unless, of course you want to download, say, a Pdf document, which I will also show you, but really quickly. Let's just click on projects.
Jennifer Blair: And here it says the owner. That's just defaults to your account. If you wanted to create categories. The categories, as you can see from here.
Jennifer Blair: they will default according to the format. So say, Instagram Post Facebook Post. If you have a flyer
Jennifer Blair: then it will. Let's just click on one.
Jennifer Blair: So you actually see it instead of me talking about it. I click on this. Then it will show me all the Instagram post formats that I've designed since the very beginning. It never deletes anything unless you purposely go out of your way.
Jennifer Blair: So say I'm defaulted to this folder, which in most cases, or for me, I have created mostly Instagram, because that's what I use can before. But if you go to folders
Jennifer Blair: or designs, actually, then it will just show you everything that you've designed. It also shows any images. Perhaps you've uploaded it into this area. But I actually use the upload feature within the templates, which is a lot easier. So that's why you don't see anything here.
Jennifer Blair: So let's just go to all. and I'll uncheck this so that it goes, or actually let me refresh. Here.
Jennifer Blair: there we go. So this shows again all of the designs I've ever done.
Jennifer Blair: and if you go here it will default to the most recent.
Jennifer Blair: and then it will give you some defaulted folders. So say you can star some if you want to. Add a favorite that you're going to use as a template for yourself repeatedly.
Jennifer Blair: Uploads does include anything that you upload within canva for most cases that will include images. But if you have other files, for whatever reason that you want to upload and include in your designs that will include that as well.
Jennifer Blair: So right below here, we'll show the designs.
Jennifer Blair: and if you are, say working on a design and you're not done, then you can just simply click on it and it will open. I'm not gonna click on it right now, because that will come a little bit later, and I don't wanna cause any confusion about what it's going to do. So let's just go down a little bit more.
Jennifer Blair: And right here it gives me all of the images that I've used recently. It does it in recent order. So, for example, Christmas just passed. I used a couple of meme posts with the elf character, and I added some text with
Jennifer Blair: related to making a meme for libraries. Since I work in a college library, I made another meme about writing for papers, and then our mascot is the cougar. So that's why you'll see a lot of cats in there. So this is the basic home page. And before I move on to the next section, let's open it up for some questions.
Julie Edwards: Thanks, Jennifer. A lot of the questions that are coming in are about the what counts as a nonprofit. So is there still an education option? Are government libraries considered nonprofits?
Jennifer Blair: Yes, and I say nonprofit as an overall big blanket, because that does cover education unless you are for some reason like a school library, that is, which is more rare, of like a for profit school. You should be fairly easily approved. They may have like a follow up question, but more than likely you will be approved as almost any library type so
Julie Edwards: great. So there are some general questions about copyright. Customization, things like that. Will that? Will you be getting to that?
Jennifer Blair: Well, as far as copyright? That's another great question. That wasn't something that was on my list. So it's a great that you asked. In canva. It has or gives you access to stock, photography and stock elements that is within their own collection, and you should be free to use those within their own platform. But if you wanted to use your own images, which you can do through the upload feature
Jennifer Blair: you will need to make sure on your own that it is able to be used without copyright issues. So I will open up a new tab right now to show you what I use.
Jennifer Blair: There are many stock photography sites out there, but most of them want you to pay, and libraries the reality that it is that we just simply can't afford to do that. So the largest collection of free images that you don't have to worry about. Copyright is Pixabay. If you go to pixabay.com, and let's just type in library.
Jennifer Blair: and of course there's some ads. So you know, that's how they pay for their websites. So if you just scroll below that, it refers to, I stock quite a bit royalty, free images, meaning you can use them in any way that you need to. You can manipulate them any way that you need to, and you don't have to worry about giving attribution with other websites, such as
Jennifer Blair: if you purchase the images from like I stock photo, then you're fine. But as far as free stock photos websites. Pick survey is by far the most reliable where you don't have to worry and double check on that other ones like. You may have heard of Flickr.
Jennifer Blair: In most cases. A normal person such as yourself say, a photographer has uploaded their images, and they want you to use them, but they want credit given, which can sometimes be hard when you're designing something. It kinda can get in the way. So I do recommend Pixabay. So I put in the word library.
Jennifer Blair: not sure why a lion came up, but so say you just click on the image here.
Jennifer Blair: and then here it even has a link to canva where you can edit. But you can create a free login, and if you don't create a free login you can still download the image, and it'll give you options from low quality to high quality. I always download the highest quality available, because in design you want the highest quality, because you can always downgrade
Jennifer Blair: to say a web file for Faust download time. But upgrading is near impossible. You will see it pixelated. You'll see a blurry. You'll just see the quality diminish. So always download the highest quality. If you don't again. If you don't create a login, then you can download, I believe, unless they've upped it 10 to 15 images for free a day.
Jennifer Blair: But if you log in it's pretty much unlimited, and it is still free, it's all free. So again, pixabay.com
Jennifer Blair: thanks. And it looks like people were asking. This, a couple of follow up questions came in about the specific use of the elf character. Oh, yes, that is a meme. So memes have different different rules.
Jennifer Blair: So when it comes to meme skills. Let's just go to Google.
Jennifer Blair: and I will go to elf means
Jennifer Blair: if I were to use it in a flier in which I were selling something, then. Yes, I can be dinked. But when it comes to memes
Jennifer Blair: those are known across the board that you can use them in social media, for example, because you're not gaining a profit.
Jennifer Blair: So in that case, that's where it's a little bit more lax. And that's why I tend to use memes a lot. But in the case where I'm promoting something for the library such as a new program, then I tend to limit it to
Jennifer Blair: stock images. So that's the general rule of thumbs that I follow. But if you use images such as this, then I would encourage you to have it be more meme, more humor oriented where you're not really focused on promoting a specific program. It could be more like a joke like, for example.
Jennifer Blair: you need to turn your books in something to that effect.
Jennifer Blair: So that's what I would advise. And if you're coming, not from the United States, your copyright rules are going to be different. So I know we have some out there. So you do need to check on that what your rules are the us tends to be probably the one of the most strict in the entire world. So if we're able to be use and not get in trouble, then you should be safe. But check your country's copyright rules.
Jennifer Blair: Okay? Any other questions. Before I move on to the next section there are lots of other questions. I wonder?
Julie Edwards: I wonder how you want to approach this Jennifer? Okay. Well, with the questions. If it's related to this page, then I will take them. Otherwise I will move on to the next section which may relate to the questions that you're getting okay. People are asking, can they share templates with others who have a free version. Is there a way I can delete a project that someone has shared with me?
Jennifer Blair: Okay, so that'll be covered. In the next section. So let's go ahead and move on. Okay. So I'm gonna go to my short cut and the next section will be create a design.
Jennifer Blair: and I'm gonna show you 2 the most commonly used. I'm going to show you a flyer which would be for print media as well as Instagram Post, and you do have Facebook. But Instagram is more popular, especially with the younger crowds. What I would advise for social media if you are posting to both Instagram and Facebook
Jennifer Blair: to use the Instagram post because it does work for both, and that'll save you some time and having to recreate it. So I'm gonna go ahead and open an Instagram post. And what it does is it automatically opens into new tab.
Jennifer Blair: And then I'm gonna really quickly just go back to the homepage that way. I don't have to keep going back and forth, and I'll create create a design, and I'll go to Flyer so that I have both. And I can show you what both formats look look like. So the first thing I'm gonna show you will be Instagram. This just looks like a square.
Jennifer Blair: And when it comes to web and print, this is what I want to emphasize when you're designing for web. This is anything for screens
Jennifer Blair: for computers, TV, Powerpoint, anything, a computer monitor phones, any digital device. That is what am I referring to when it comes to web, you're going to design a little bit differently, and that you don't have to depend on the image to be as high a quality, because
Jennifer Blair: how images work with the web is that you actually want it to be lower quality, because that affects how long it takes to view the image and download it, upload it, etc. So when you're looking at images, if, say, for example, you find an image on Pixab 8,
and you only have the lower quality version available, then you know that that will be okay in most cases for web files that you create.
Jennifer Blair: Okay? So
Jennifer Blair: on the left side menu, this covers web and print in that. This is standard notice. There's a design elements, text
Jennifer Blair: brand uploads, draw projects, projects, is just your folders and then other apps that it may refer to. And then photos that, just
Jennifer Blair: I would suggest to just use uploads if you are using your own images, because that's where it's going to be, anyway. And then photos will give you access to canvas stock photography. So the first thing I want you to notice is that it defaults to templates.
Jennifer Blair: So the most recent, then one that I used was for 2,024, welcome, 2,024. That was an Instagram post.
Jennifer Blair: I didn't actually, in most cases I alter the templates in some fashion to fit the text or the theme of my library. But in this case this worked out perfectly. I didn't really have to add anything. And when templates are being used which will be in most cases for you all you have to do is click on it.
Jennifer Blair: So when you find one that you like, just click on it, and it will apply to the page automatically. Notice also here that it has an Add page button. You can add as many pages as you want unlimited.
Jennifer Blair: But I would suggest that if you are creating for Instagram, Facebook, whatever social media, anything for the web that you limit it to one no more than 2 pages, because
Jennifer Blair: the attention span on the web for anybody is going to be shorter than print. and so keep it short and sweet is the rule of thumb
Jennifer Blair: now. On the side here, if I wanted to add anything to an existing template. it defaults to design, which then gives you the search option to search for templates. So say I, put in New Year, and that's what comes up
Jennifer Blair: just a general search. And then again, when you find one that you like, you just click on it, and it applies
Jennifer Blair: notice. Here I am logged in, not as a pro account. I wanted to show you what that looks like when you are limited to the free account. So notice the little crown.
Jennifer Blair: if you'd only have the free account, at least for now then, limit yourself to the templates that don't have a crown.
Jennifer Blair: because it's going to tell you when you want to download it as an image, for example, that it will say, Sorry, this is for a pro account. You can't do that. So just again look for templates that don't have the crown.
Jennifer Blair: Other things that you can add to a template. Once you insert the template onto your blank page, you can insert anything else that you want that's available. So if you click on elements here, for example, this gives you shapes.
Jennifer Blair: I use shapes quite a bit when I create blank pages.
Jennifer Blair: and I create from scratch. Say, you need an arrow. Say, you need to block out a section that where you're really highlighting a date and time of a program. and the same thing when you apply it to your page. If you say wanna insert a square.
Jennifer Blair: All you do is click on it as I've just done.
Jennifer Blair: and then sometimes it does get in the way of other objects. If you want to increase or decrease the size. Notice here, you just roll your mouse over those sections here, and hold your mouse down and just drag it.
Jennifer Blair: or if you wanted it overall, you can shrink it into increase it. You can move it around. Usually, if it's not letting me move it around by holding my mouse down I will click away
Jennifer Blair: and then click again. and then, when I hold my mouse down, I can move it wherever I want. so elements are pretty easy to use.
Jennifer Blair: But one thing I want you to notice is, when you use any element you will notice up here
Jennifer Blair: a lot of options. You don't have to default, to say the default color for shapes, for whatever reason is gray.
Jennifer Blair: notice the gray color block. If you click on the color block it gives you. It picks up the colors that are in the template. So it gives you some color suggestions, and then it has default colors.
Jennifer Blair: default gradients, gradients are beautiful, and then, even if that doesn't fit, you can click on the rainbow.
Jennifer Blair: and you have all of the colors available that you want. So say, well, I don't want this gray. Just drag the Slider over to the color area that you want. So say you want blue.
Jennifer Blair: and then you just click in the area that you want. So say it's dark blue as soon as you click on it. then your shape changes that color. Notice to the right. So that's how you can alter your shapes. And this also applies to text, which I will show you right now.
Jennifer Blair: So say, that's the shape that I want, and then if I go to text here.
Jennifer Blair: you can add a text box, or you can add the default, and I'll alter it that way in most cases. That's what I do, because it's just easier. So say, I want the text to be big.
Jennifer Blair: same thing as soon as you click on it. It applies to your template, so it's pretty easy. You can click on, add a heading. and then it does say, add a heading, and then you can replace the text. So say it is. Say, it's going to be 2025 instead, and you're going to use the same template. But you want the year to be changed.
Jennifer Blair: So here it's just like a text box, as if you're using word you can highlight it. And then up above. Here you can change your font styles just by clicking.
Jennifer Blair: and then you can just scroll through what's available, same thing as images anything with a crown. If you don't have a pro account is not available to you, you can click on it, and it'll apply. But again, once you try to download the the image. It'll block you.
Jennifer Blair: so say. Well, I don't like the default font. I like this font. and it defaults to bold in a lot of cases, so you can unbold. See what that looks like. Bold. Make it a catallic.
Jennifer Blair: pretty much like word. You can increase the size.
Jennifer Blair: You can also, with the plus sign, or you can just double, click and say, Well, I need it to be 200.
Jennifer Blair: And then here, where it shows the rainbow under the text color. You can click on it, get all the colors of the rainbow, or use the suggestion. Say, you just want white, so just click on it so as long as your word or your text is highlighted it will apply.
Jennifer Blair: And then again, very similar to word. You should be fur very familiar with this. It gives you the default alignment of center justified. But if you click on it, say you want left justified, it'll apply there. If you want to apply a bullet. This is spacing, so it gives you the default, such as single spacing, double spacing. So if you wanted to alter it, if you have multiple lines, and the spacing is too far. Then you can decrease it.
Jennifer Blair: I would suggest, when you decrease it, that you decrease it minimally because you don't want the word squish together.
Jennifer Blair: and then you also have effects. So if you wanted to add like a shadow, splice and outline things of that nature, all you have to do is
Jennifer Blair: from the default of none. If you wanted to add a slight shadow, just click on it, and that's it.
Jennifer Blair: So using the text is pretty simple, and you should be pretty familiar with it with things that you've already used. So that's how I use text. I don't use brand, because that's with canva pro in which you can set up brand templates a brand kit that's really used heavily for like marketing. So I would say, unless you're creating like a marketing plan, a marketing package. You're probably not going to use that
Jennifer Blair: for uploads. This is where you upload all of your images, your video. If you have an audio file. I have not uploaded any audio files, because for social media and fliers
Jennifer Blair: I've yet to use that. So when you upload, it's pretty simple. You just click on it.
Jennifer Blair: and then it goes to whatever you want. So see, I have some meme saved. I go here. Say, what a library can librarian can search better than Google? Great meme that I found! Then all I have to do is click on open
Jennifer Blair: and it it will upload.
Jennifer Blair: and then similar to a template.
Jennifer Blair: All you have to do to add it to your page is click on it so click.
Jennifer Blair: and there it is.
Jennifer Blair: I know I my design is getting a little messy, but I just wanted to show you the features. So let's just
Jennifer Blair: these letters are getting in the way of me actually clicking on it. So if I hold my mouse down.
Jennifer Blair: if you drag it over to the left. It will default to spanning the whole space, but I don't want that. so if I wanted to resize it myself, I'll go to the corner.
Jennifer Blair: and then I will hold my mouse down and drag outward to make it bigger inward to make it smaller, just like an image.
Jennifer Blair: And you always want to use the corner because you don't want the images to be stretched stretched meaning. It's too wide looking too tall looking. So that's how you use uploads. It's just a simple button. You click on it.
Jennifer Blair: Let me click on that again. So you see what it looks like. I have a Mac. So if you have a PC. It will look a little bit different so you just find whatever your file
Jennifer Blair: click on it, click on open.
Jennifer Blair: I have not used the draw tool, but you're welcome to. It's pretty simple. It's like a marker tool. You choose your marker type and you can draw all over it. But I found that using elements such as arrows say, you wanted to create an arrow, it's already going to be in elements. So unless you want something very specific. And you have really good digital drawing skills. I don't think most of you will use that so.
But if you do want to use it and try it out. It defaults to this marker here, and then you can just kind of draw
Jennifer Blair: whatever you want just by holding your mouse down.
Jennifer Blair: And then here's your projects, folder. This is the same thing as your home page.
Jennifer Blair: and that's pretty much it from the side menu. But now I'm going to go ahead and go to this share button, which is how you will download it or share it via social media.
Jennifer Blair: So let me just delete some of this extra stuff here. So say, this is your beautiful post that you're gonna put on, Instagram.
Jennifer Blair: If you go to the share button.
Jennifer Blair: Canva does have an option for you to share on social. I don't use it because I use a social media calendar scheduler which I would encourage you to look into. There's a lot of free ones out there that give you limited posts per month.
Jennifer Blair: But if you wanted to pay, you can have it unlimited. I personally use what's called buffer
Jennifer Blair: and then there's another calendar that's for free called later. And it's web based. So basically, all you do is you upload the image file that is created from canva into the schedule, and then you can put your caption
Jennifer Blair: so for me, I don't use the schedule tool. They also have a schedule tool available for pro directly into canva. I have found that Instagram is a little bit more picky with how you connect via other websites. But Facebook doesn't tend to have any issues.
Jennifer Blair: So if you go to download.
Jennifer Blair: if it's a web file.
Jennifer Blair: it will give you several options. You can download any file in these file types. No matter if it's a web file that you're creating or a print file.
Jennifer Blair: it gives you really easy for you, the suggested file type. If you go to Jpeg or Png, that is your standard for web files, because it will save it in a low lower quality file where nobody's going to have issues when they look at your file on Instagram, on your website, because the the file, the larger it is on the web
Jennifer Blair: the longer it takes to download, and people are pretty impatient when it comes to websites. So I would suggest that you use their suggested Png or Jpeg as a backup.
Jennifer Blair: The reason P. And G. You may be used to using Jpeg, but the reason P. And G. Is better is that it's very similar to a Jpeg in that it'll save it lower quality. But it is what's called lossless, and what lossless is is that it will not lose quality over time.
Jennifer Blair: Jpegs are not lossless in that they will lose quality over time. The more you open them
Jennifer Blair: the less quality it will have.
Jennifer Blair: So that's why, I would suggest to use a Png all the time if you can, when it comes to web files.
Jennifer Blair: So before I move on to the flyer file. Let's go over some questions, so let's open it up.
Julie Edwards: Great. Let's see, people are asking about. Are you looking at the questions? The QA. Jennifer also, or no problem. People are asking, is there a way to crop shapes rather than just add rounded as edges? Can we make our own design into a template. What is the magic right? Can you upload gifts?
Jennifer Blair: Yes, you should be able to upload gifts I have uploaded gifts to make it have movement. If you're referring to like an animated gift or a regular gift can work as well, it can be a little bit finicky for videos. Not with canva. But with if you're using a social media scheduler, they can limit your video file size. So do keep that in mind. But with canva it's no issue.
Jennifer Blair: So what I'll do is I will add a page here, so you can see a blank page, and I can go over what you can alter from scratch. So let me go to say one of my uploads
Jennifer Blair: and say, I have this cougar image, which is our school mascot. As soon as I click on the image it inserts. Yes, you can crop so you can resize any size you want, but it is also used as a crop tool in that. Notice the little bars in the middle here.
Jennifer Blair: you can crop it out. So say you wanted more. Focus on the cougar. Just bring it down.
Jennifer Blair: bring it to the side
Jennifer Blair: so like that you wanted to cut out all the rock, and then you can increase
Jennifer Blair: or decrease whatever you need.
Jennifer Blair: And some of the photos do have effects on there, and you can also use transparency. So see this little box here, you click on it.
Jennifer Blair: Say you wanted it be like a transparent background. It defaults to a hundred percent. So you can go ahead and have it blend in and have it be a little bit softer, whatever the case may be, just play with, around with it, and then once you release, click away, then it will apply.
Jennifer Blair: and in this case. Say, you click on animate, there will give you some
Jennifer Blair: features there.
Jennifer Blair: So you want to fade. You want whatever pop white, whatever the case may be, all you need to do is click on it, and it will apply.
Jennifer Blair: It also has edit photo button.
Jennifer Blair: Most of these features are available as a pro account. The most common one that it will be used is to remove the background.
Jennifer Blair: so that will do it automatically. It will not be perfect. So do look and make sure that the edges don't look kind of odd, or it misses a section.
Jennifer Blair: But if you wanted to make adjustments you can also adjust. Say
Jennifer Blair: me scroll down here. How bright it is! So if you wanted to be brighter, contrast
Jennifer Blair: whatever you need, just move the slider to the left or right.
Jennifer Blair: and then they also have the crop button, which is the same as what I was doing before. So this just opens it up in the edit menu, but it's exactly the same as say, me clicking away and just using this up or down or side to side.
Jennifer Blair: and then if you wanted to rearrange. So let's go to elements
Jennifer Blair: and elements isn't not just shapes it. It's also does give you access to some animated gifts. If you wanted a little bit of movement, or if you wanted something really pretty so like, say, you wanted this in there like a pretty swish. It already has the background left out of there.
Jennifer Blair: Looks like that's a pro, because it has a watermark on there, but very similar to photos. All you do is just click on it. But when it comes to shapes I wanted to show you this tool.
Jennifer Blair: Say, this is the shape I want it picked up. That tone of the cougar, so it didn't default to Gray. If I say, have some text here.
Jennifer Blair: I'll go to my text box.
Jennifer Blair: and then I'll click on it and say. Googlers.
Jennifer Blair: whatever I'm promoting at that time could put it over. But if, say, for example, the text is behind it.
Jennifer Blair: and you need it to come forward. Same with images. All you need to do is click on your object. To put it in the order that you want. So say I need this to be in back.
Jennifer Blair: So I click on the object. And then if you don't see it up here, that means there's a lot of options there. So click on the 3 dots for the drop down, menu. and then click on position.
Jennifer Blair: And then I'm going to send this to the back so that way it comes in the order, or I put it in the order that I need. Then was there another question that I missed?
Julie Edwards: There are a lot. We actually have about 27 questions. And before II feed you another one, Jennifer, I just want to encourage everyone. If you put a question in the QA. You may also want to drop it in the chat because it looks like there is a lot of different levels of canva experience in the group here, and so people may be able to answer questions that we are just not going to be able to get to but, Jennifer, several people have been asking, what is the magic? Right.
Jennifer Blair: the magic? Right. So let me go to the next section in creating a flyer, and that is what I'm going to primarily cover in this next section. So I just wanted to show you what Instagram looks like and how to use the templates before we get into more advanced tools. So I'm just gonna go ahead and open up a blank template here and this is creating a flyer.
Jennifer Blair: So I would say, the magic rights or the magic design in when it comes to Instagram and web and social media. That's going to be easier because it's a faster design. You can use templates very easily. You know that people are not going to look at it for very long, so you don't have to create as intense
Jennifer Blair: time devoted to it. So I would suggest, when you want to devote the time to a really really great design that's going to go out to all of your community, then focus on the designs that you know that are going to stay around for a while at least for your say, for fall, for spring. Whatever your programs are.
Jennifer Blair: you know that it's gonna be at the desk for a while, and in most cases that's going to be like the flyer that you hand out, or the flyer that you put on the web for people to see on the website. So in that case. I'm going to show you just fairly quickly on how to use the template to create a design to your advantage, and then I will go to the next step
Jennifer Blair: and creating a blank design. And I will say right from the beginning, there is not one design or one thing that is going to put the right design elements. A 100% of the time. I would say the right design is going to be unique every time. And then universally, it is how you arrange the
Jennifer Blair: text and the images, and how you put it in order of priority, and how you do that with design elements is referred to as the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds uses a design. So let me click on this as a template. So say you're having a book program.
Jennifer Blair: a book sale, or whatever the case may be. So say you wanted to use this as a template, but you're going to alter it. I would encourage you if you're using templates, to alter it as much as possible to fit your needs. So here
Jennifer Blair: say I love the clouds. I love the sky, but everything else can pretty much go. So I'm going to make it unique to what I need. I don't need the airplane, so I'm going to click on it and delete it. I don't need these little books, so I'm going to delete them.
Jennifer Blair: Whatever these purple things are. I'm going to delete those as well. So
Jennifer Blair: your primary focus in creating a great design is going to be how it plays with the imagery and the text, and what you have to present
Jennifer Blair: applying the rule of thirds means that not everything is going to be centred. That is a universal rule of thumb, because when it comes to designing, it needs to flow throughout. And when you center everything that forces your eye to only look at the center and not appreciate everything else that you've designed. So in this case, I see everything is centered. So say this object. I really like that. I'm going to keep it
Jennifer Blair: instead of having it centered. I'm just gonna go ahead and drag it a little bit to the left.
Jennifer Blair: And then with this rotate tool, I'm going to create some visual interest, so I'll just rotate it a little bit.
Jennifer Blair: Maybe I'll bring it down a little bit to create that cut off which creates more visual interest.
Jennifer Blair: Say, I like the blue sky color, but I don't like the text color, make it unique to what you need. So I click on the text box. click on white, and that shows up a little bit better.
Jennifer Blair: And now I'm going to put it in order of priority. So the biggest text is always what you want people's attention to get, and that in most cases is okay. Depending on your design to have it be centered.
Jennifer Blair: So say it's going to be book zone
Jennifer Blair: looks great.
Jennifer Blair: Consider or ask yourself, what is the secondary, most important question.
Jennifer Blair: Obviously, in this case, it's going to be the date, the time.
Jennifer Blair: And if people are coming into the library, obviously, it's going to be a at the library, so they don't necessarily need the address to be nice and big because they've already visited. So here, I'm going to take this text box.
Jennifer Blair: I'm going to duplicate it and put it on your here you could duplicate text boxes as much as you want but in this case I'm duplicating to keep the font style, because in this case I like the font style. I'm just going to increase the size. So say I'm going to increase it to 45.
Jennifer Blair: And then I'm not going to use all of this information. This is just going to be date time.
Jennifer Blair: and whatever else is the secondary information. So that is universal. Always put the information that is most important in the biggest font size, and secondary to that should be the information, just as the date, the time, the location, whatever the case may be.
Jennifer Blair: here is.
Jennifer Blair: it's centred again. So I'm going to create a little bit more visual interest, using the rule of thirds by not having it exactly centred and not having it centred justified.
Jennifer Blair: So I'm going to make it left justified and playing with that cloud image, I'm going to drag it down a little bit.
Jennifer Blair: The fonts a little small. So I'm going to increase it. Say 22.
Jennifer Blair: Come to our book sale. etc.
Jennifer Blair: So here, as you can see, making those simple
Jennifer Blair: changes has a loud, better flow. because here is the centered information.
Jennifer Blair: The other information about the event forces your eye to travel to the left side.
Jennifer Blair: and then I'm going to create another text box here where I'm going to. Right? Justify it.
Jennifer Blair: And I'm going to say, Public Library. This is your address.
Jennifer Blair: and maybe I'll put phone Number
Jennifer Blair: Yup.
Jennifer Blair: and I'll put it right within the clouds. So play with the elements that are there for you.
Jennifer Blair: So there's no right answer for every design. It just depends on how you want to design it. But applying the rule of thirds, which I encourage you to investigate even further means that not everything is centred within a design, it allows your eye to flow throughout. So notice, I've created a flow. Here
Jennifer Blair: it goes right to the center at the top, then it flows to the left. Then, with that visual interest of the books, it continues to the left, but then it darts to the right with the
Jennifer Blair: third information or third level of information that you need to give. So put it in priority and apply the rule of thirds. Now I'm going to add a page here so that I can start from scratch
Jennifer Blair: going to even make it white.
Jennifer Blair: Starting from scratch, I encourage you to use the templates as much as you can until you get comfortable, and then, when you are comfortable, use the elements. So over to the left. Here you go to the elements.
Jennifer Blair: Say that you're promoting a children's story time. So I'm going to go ahead and put a shape here.
Jennifer Blair: and then I'm going to find an image. So sometimes canva images look great. And so I'm just going to type in. If I go to photos, I go to put child reading
Jennifer Blair: lot of em are the pro accounts. But say, here's this one. You just click on it.
Jennifer Blair: have it apply.
Jennifer Blair: And then you. I'm going to zoom in a little bit, so you can see it a little bit better.
Jennifer Blair: There you go.
Jennifer Blair: And so you get all the elements that you need to use in your promotional item.
Jennifer Blair: So I have. I just wanna use one image, make it simple. And when it comes to say, print design.
Jennifer Blair: then make sure that in most cases your color is, or colors or images are all the way to the edge.
Jennifer Blair: and that you size it appropriately when it comes to images universally images have a lot of visual power, therefore they tend to navigate your eye directly to it. In those cases you want to be careful to have your image not too big, not too small, just right.
Jennifer Blair: And also notice, this image is cutting off the father's head, so I may want to put it at the top to look as if well, it's cutting it off, but I'm using it to its advantage, or
Jennifer Blair: if I bring it down here, then I'm going to use this shape to my advantage.
Jennifer Blair: and I will position it to be say, in front.
Jennifer Blair: and so that it looks like I've done that on purpose, so pay attention to the shapes, especially with people. If the head is fully formed and covered in the image, if it's not, then you have to use it to your advantage by kind of trying to cover that up with the photo.
Jennifer Blair: But universally.
Jennifer Blair: I'm going to apply the rule of thirds. And that. Let me just add a text box here.
Jennifer Blair: It just kind of places it wherever you want, and then you'll just alter it. Say, children, story time.
Jennifer Blair: And the text is too big for the default, so let me reduce it.
Jennifer Blair: And then.
Jennifer Blair: applying the rule of thirds, notice that I've put the information most important at the top doesn't always have to be at the top, but the biggest font. And then I'm going to use the colors that are complementary to this image. So even though it defaulted to that teal color.
Jennifer Blair: I'm going to use change the color like, well, that brown works. So that's a color that was picked up in the image.
Jennifer Blair: And then I'm just going to copy and paste this text box so that I have the same format, and I'll just reduce the size. Say it's on Thursdays
at 11 Am.
Jennifer Blair: And then you say 2 to 3 year.
Jennifer Blair: I will reduce it, because this is secondary information.
Jennifer Blair: Reduce it even more so it's all about
Jennifer Blair: putting it in order of priority.
Jennifer Blair: and then universally like the the magic
Jennifer Blair: design is. Again, you'll using the rule of thirds look more into that in that, making sure that not everything is centered, and that you have a good flow, a good balance of all of the elements, all of the images. So say, for example.
Jennifer Blair: I want to put this up here behind it
Jennifer Blair: so that this is front and center.
Jennifer Blair: Say, I change the font color to that. What that does is it blocks out that color, and it forces your eye to look at that first.
Jennifer Blair: If I wanted to create. Let me go to another element here. Another box.
Jennifer Blair: change the color a little bit. create visual interest is the other rule of thumb thumb.
Jennifer Blair: creating visual interest, such as images don't let them overpower. So I'm actually going to reduce the size here.
Jennifer Blair: And Jennifer, I just wanted to quickly point out the time. Yes, yes, so I'm almost there and and then say, you want to use your shapes and elements
Jennifer Blair: to block out other information.
Jennifer Blair: So before we we close. I know I'm short on time as far as creating a design from scratch that can take an hour in itself. So let's go up to the template as a better referral, and let's open it up to other questions that I may have missed. Try to cover as much as possible in the 3 min that we have. So people were asking specifically about the magic right
Jennifer Blair: the magic right is what i've stated several times already look into the rule of thirds as far as design elements. The ma, the magic right, is another phrase of saying what is, how do you know? It's a great design. And I would say, use this template as a great example of a design. Notice the flow. It's all about flow and balance, using complementary colors and
Jennifer Blair: shapes and appropriate imagery to whatever it is that you are creating. So it's allowing your eye to travel throughout.
Jennifer Blair: because when you're like a rookie in design. You automatically wanna put everything centered, or all to the right, all to the left. Have a flow throughout. That is the magic right? Have some visual interest, some visual impact, and have your eye travel from top to bottom, side to side all throughout, because you want your focus to be on the entire design rather than just one element.
Julie Edwards: Oh, someone just pointed out that there's there's a magic right RIGH. T. And magic right WRIT. E. That canva. When you hover over text.
Julie Edwards: there's a magic right option that people are saying is an AI feature in canvas. Oh, that's something completely different. Oh, I'm so sorry, I thought. It's hard without seeing the the text, but brings us to the top of the hour. Jennifer, I don't know if you have any sort of final words that you want to share with everyone getting started with this.
Jennifer Blair: Yeah. So one final thing I wanted to share was, when you download a print file, you go use the same share button. and then when you go to download instead of PNG. Which is just like a Jpeg flat file.
Jennifer Blair: I would suggest or make sure that you do a Pdf print file, because that will allow you to save the Pdf as an image later on, using the Pdf software or it allows it as saving it in the highest quality possible, and then you can use it that Pdf. Universally, everybody can open a Pdf, so that's my final tip.
Jennifer Blair: And I'm so sorry the time just flew by. I wish I could devote just another hour to just showing you how to create from scratch, but I hope that you did find all the information helpful.
Julie Edwards: Thank you. You're getting a lot of thank yous in the chat. And yes, I will be sending all of this information to you, so you will get the video recording the webinar recording the Chat Transcript, where there was so much great information. I love it. When we have all these librarians in sharing information. I'll send the audio Transcript as well. This will all be on our blog, so you're welcome to share it with you.
Julie Edwards: Your colleagues in your library. And I hope that we will see you all at another upcoming webinar. You can go to niche academy.com slash webinars slash upcoming webinars to see what is coming up. Jennifer. Thank you so much for your expertise and time this afternoon. We really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Julie Edwards: Have a great day, everybody. Bye.