If opening Canva to work on a “quick” graphic begins with tears and ends 3 hours later, I have some tips that will make it a little easier for you.
Here are the 5 Canva shortcuts I use on the daily:
1. Add shapes with 1 click
As long as you do not have any text or text-friendly shapes selected, press R on your keyboard to insert a rectangle.
Do the same thing with the letter C and you have yourself a circle! And L gives you a line!
2. Insert a text box
Pressing ctrl + [ with the desired element selected will move it one layer backward. Keep pressing it to move it farther back. To send it all the way back in 1 click, press ctrl + alt + [
Swap the open bracket with a closed bracket and now you'll be moving things forward or to the front! That's ctrl + ] or ctrl + alt + ]
3. [Re]arrange your layers
Pressing ctrl + [ with the desired element selected will move it one layer backward. Keep pressing it to move it farther back. To send it all the way back in 1 click, press ctrl + alt + [
Swap the open bracket with a closed bracket and now you'll be moving things forward or to the front! That's ctrl + ] or ctrl + alt + ]
4. Multi-select elements
Shift + click (click, click, click…) allows you to select or de-select multiple elements on a page.
This feature is super helpful when you're aligning or resizing things together, or when you're grouping ⬇️
5. Group + ungroup
Ctrl + G will group together the elements you have selected.
Undo a group by clicking ctrl + shift + G.
Easy peasy! Try committing one of these to memory each week (or month, no judgment) – you'll be shocked to know you lived without them.
