How to Use the Canva Whiteboard

 Canva introduces a new feature: the Whiteboard

I don’t know about you, but I am consistently and constantly impressed by Canva. The Australian-based graphic design platform is always upgrading and improving, adding epic features and functions. I’m always amazed at even the small tweaks they make to ensure their platform is user-friendly and functional. The Canva Whiteboard feature is no different.

It wasn’t long ago that I was minding my own business on Canva, creating graphics for my Instagram or Pinterest pins when I saw it: the new Canva Whiteboard feature. Just sitting there. Also minding its own business.

I clicked it. And gasped.

The Canva Whiteboard is a brilliant new tool and there are so many possibilities for using it for your blog, business, studies, and work. In this blog post, we’re going to take a look at the Canva Whiteboard and how to use it, and I’m going to offer up some ideas as to how you might use it for your various graphic design needs.

What is the Canva Whiteboard?

The Canva Whiteboard is a new (August 2022) feature in the graphic design programme that allows you to create a mind map, brainstorm, flow charts and more. Imagine a giant whiteboard … and now put that in digital form. That’s what the Canva Whiteboard is.

How does Canva’s Whiteboard work?

When you first open up a new Canva Whiteboard file, you’ll be greeted with a full-screen white space. This is the space that you’re going to use as your whiteboard. You can zoom in and out of the space, meaning it can be as big or as small as you need it to be for your project.

You can add elements, images, links, videos, and audio … just like you could any other design on Canva. Turning it into a collaboration is another great feature, which we’ll get to in a moment.

How do you use a whiteboard in Canva?

Open up a blank Canva Whiteboard file or use one of the MANY templates to get started. Now the world is your oyster!

Insert elements such as rectangles to create text boxes, arrows to indicate a flow or next point, lines and shapes to move from one idea to the next, and insert images for inspiration or clarification.

Use the zoom buttons to move in and out of the different areas of your whiteboard (or the scroll wheel on your mouse!), and the left to right arrows to move along, just like you would any other design.

The biggest thing to remember when it comes to using the whiteboard on Canva is that there are no edges. You’re not constrained by a Banner size or an Instagram Story 9:16 ratio. You can literally zoom in and out and continue all the way to the side, go up and go down. It means that you can collate information and ideas all in one handy place.

Using Canva Whiteboard as a Team

The Canva Whiteboard is perfect for team brainstorming. Open up a new Whiteboard and let your team add ideas to the board, insert comments, add suggestions, and more. It’s a brilliant collaborative space to let the creativity flow. Much better than a boring ol’ shared Google Doc or other word-processing platforms.

Canva Whiteboard is productive AND fun. 🎉🥳

Adding your Whiteboard to a Canva Presentation

Canva’s features and functions work so well with each other, and the addition of the Whiteboard hasn’t changed that.

As well as creating, sharing, and downloading your Whiteboard, you can quickly change it to a presentation, or vice versa, and turn a presentation into a whiteboard so that you can engage your audience and get them to interact with your content.

Whiteboard templates on Canva

Like all designs on Canva, there are a bunch of templates to get you started. Canva templates are great if you know you want to, for example, create an email sequence plan, but aren’t really sure the best way to lay it out. With a template, you can easily take what you need from the template and leave the rest.

12 Ways to use the Canva Whiteboard

Individual brainstorming

Team brainstorming

Mind-Mapping

Essay plans

Programme or Course Planning

Event planning

Study Notes

Website layout designs

Minuting meetings

Email sequences

Diagram creation

Voting

Individual brainstorming

I don’t know about you but I LOVE  good brainstorm. Whether that be brainstorming blog post ideas, course ideas, jotting down all the things I want to do in a country if I’m planning a trip … anything!

Brainstorming is like a more creative way to list, and I’m a big lister. If you’re anything like me then this is definitely a goer!

Team brainstorming

We’ve already talked about using the whiteboard as a team, but this is going to be so handy if you’re in need of a collaborative online space where people can input their ideas, comment on others’ ideas, add suggestions, images, links and videos.

There is a lot of scope for some great teamwork here!

Mind-Mapping

One of my friend’s dads is a brilliant mind-mapper.

If you’re not familiar, mind-mapping is a way to visually organise information into a hierarchy, and show relationships between pieces of content or ideas. Often it’s used as a way to map out speeches and ideas, focussing on a central theme, topic or concept.

Using the Whiteboard function on Canva is a perfect place to create a mind-map.

Essay Plans

I have to admit I never really planned out my essays when I was in high school and University. I sort of just went with the flow and hoped for the best (did I pass everything? Sure did. Was I a very good student? Ahhmmm debatable).

Perhaps if I had a tool like Canva and the whiteboard then I may have made the most of it for planning essays. Or maybe it would have just distracted me by being super fun and pretty to use. Who knows.

Whether you opt for a flow-chart type system or a mind-map like we spoke about above, there is a lot of potential to create really solid essay plans using this tool. You just need to figure out what ways are going to be best for you and what you need to achieve.

Programme or Course Planning

For planning out Blogging With Confidence, I used an actual IRL whiteboard. This is great and super helping for planning a course but being able to see everything in one place.

But it did mean I could only do it when I was at home with my whiteboard. Being able to use the Canva feature to have a whiteboard ‘on the go’, as it were, would have been really helpful. Then, when I was out and about and had a great idea, I could quickly add it to my course whiteboard and it would update and save.

Event planning

It’s not just courses I plan! I’m a big lover of events, and there’s something quite satisfying about planning an event and seeing it all come together in the end.

Having an online space like the Whiteboard on Canva is a brilliant way to plan events, especially if it’s collaborative. Whether you need to add things such as caterers, decor, who is giving speeches, or location planning … there is plenty of room to keep all your event plans in one handy place.

Study Notes

When I was in high school and university my notes were colourful.

I drew all over large pieces of paper and created brainstorms and mind-maps for my exam study and it was really helpful as I’m a visual learner. I could take a snapshot in my mind of the notes I had written, then pop into the exam and remember (for the most part) what I had written down.

Using the whiteboard in this way is another great way to utilise this new Canva feature. While physically writing things down is going to help you remember them better, it’s still a great way to carry your notes around with you and be able to add to them quickly and do some revision on the go.

Or you can create your notes and print them out!

Website layout designs

Whenever I’m creating a new page on my website or over on Learn, I like to plan it out in sections.

The header, main hook or introductions, the details, images, buttons etc. It’s really helpful to be able to plan and design (even in draft form!) website pages in Canva. Having the Whiteboard is going to make it even easier!

Minuting meetings

Say goodbye to boring meeting minutes! If you’ve got the Canva App on your tablet you could even use the Canva Draw Tool and take minutes and notes from meetings on the whiteboard.

While you may need to write them up ‘correctly’ if your boss or meeting chair needs the minutes in text format if you’re a visual person and you take better notes that way, this is a great option for you.

Email sequences

As a business owner or blogger, you hopefully have an email list. One of the great things about having an email list is that you can set people up to receive a series of emails, where you can promote your business or blog to them.

But email sequences take planning and sometimes that gets a bit complicated if you have different tracks you want to lead people down. Using the whiteboard on Canva is a great option for planning out the flow of an email sequence, adding If-Then conditions, arrows to indicate which emails should be sent next, including things such as Unsubscribe actions or adding people to a different group etc.

Laying everything on in a handy sequence on Canva allows you to see any gaps or flaws in your flow, or quickly rearrange what you want to send people.

Diagram creation

You can already create diagrams on Canva, but having a bigger space that you can easily add to without resizing the canvas you’re working on is a real bonus.

Whether you’re creating flowcharts, infographics, a series of charts, or completely designing something custom using elements and shapes, the new feature will help you design and create diagrams.

Voting

This may seem like an odd one to include, but there are some really neat voting templates already on Canva for the whiteboard.

You could use this as a flat (with your roommates) to vote on certain household items (like the plants in the template image), or for activities on a travel holiday or vacation, or even for things such as social clubs at work.

Think outside the box and see what you can come up with!