How to Organize Canva

Canva is fantastic if you suck at making good-looking graphics like I do. Organizing Canva is an absolute nightmare. I love you Canva but you’ve got issues. While I still don’t love Canva, here are some simple ways (seriously, you can do this) to organize Canva.

If you want to see these strategies in action, be sure to follow me on Instagram for quick video tutorials!

Step 1: Create Folders

The first step to organize Canva is to separate your designs in to folders.

You can create folders in Canva by clicking “All Your Folders” on the left side of the screen and “Create New Folder” in the top right corner of the new page that loads.

You’ll want folders for all major projects you have or areas of your business. For example, you may want one for your new course or membership. Within that folder you can create sub folders for things like your Sales Page, IG Graphics, FB Ads, etc.

Folders keep graphics for different projects separated and easier to find, especially if you want to recycle content.

Step 2: Name Your Graphics Wisely

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you must name your files well. Clear file names are a must to organize Canva. There are several different approaches you could take. Which you use depends a lot on how you use Canva.

Personally, I like to “tag” my file names with what type of image it is. I add “IG” to all my Instagram images and “FB” to any Facebook graphics. Other tags I use in file names are “Blog” or the name of a course or special event. Organizing Canva is one of the few times I like to include dates in my file names.

In the file above, I know this is an Instagram post. It’s a sock metaphor I use a lot and it was posted to IG on September 5th. In the future I can search “socks” or “9/” to find and repurpose this post.

Step 3: Save or Move Your Graphics to a Folder

There are a few ways to get graphics into folders in Canva.

Let’s start with a mass move.

From the “All Your Designs” screen in a Grid view, click the small white square that appears in the top left corner of an image.
Select all the images you want to move to one folder.
At the bottom of the screen you’ll see two icons, a folder and a trash can.
Click the folder icon and choose the folder you want to save the images to.

If you’re working on an image in edit mode

Click “File” in the top left of the screen then “Save to folder”.
Choose the folder you want to save it to and click “Save” at the bottom of the folder list. You may need to scroll down. You can also create a new folder from this screen.

Saving your images to a folder is an extra step to get in the habit of doing and it’s an important one.

Organize Your Uploads

Pull pictures and videos out of Uploads and into a folder to organize Canva. If you’re like me you probably just drag and drop pictures and videos into the Uploads section while in Edit mode. This creates a crazy long list of uploaded files and I am forever scrolling to find the one I need. Use folders instead.

An easy way to sort out Uploads:

From the Home screen click “Uploads” on the left.
Click the small white box in the upper left corner of images to select
Click the folder Icon at the bottom of the screen
You can’t create new folders here so you’ll need to have the folder created first

How To Find Your Folders in Edit/Create Mode

When you’re editing or creating an image, on the far, far left side you’ll see “Templates” “Elements” “Uploads” etc.
Scroll down to the bottom of that far left section with the black background and you’ll see “Folders”
Click Folders and you’ll see all your folders. Click the one you want.

That folder now appears in the far left side toolbar with a black background.

Want to remove a folder from that left side toolbar?

Click the folder
An “x” will appear in the top left corner of the folder icon. Click and it’s gone

Use Different Views

You can view everything in Canva as a Grid View or a List View. I like to toggle between the two depending on what I’m looking at. Here’s a comparison of the different views in the “All your designs” page.

How To Search Your Graphics

It took me way longer than I’m proud to admit to figure this out.

At the top of the home screen, click in the “Search Canva” bar
Start typing the title of your graphic (remember when I told you naming them well was important?)

Click “Your Designs” to see the first 10 results.

Press “Enter” on the keyboard to see all results.

This is all great Lisa but my Canva is SO BAD. It’s gonna take for-ev-er (said in a Squints voice from The Sandlot movie). Reminder: you don’t have to and shouldn’t attempt to organize everything in one sitting. You will go bananas and hate it.

Organize things as you create and use them.

Set a timer for 10 minutes and spend ten minutes scrolling through the “All your designs” page sorting them out.
Note: They will still appear in “All your designs” which is one thing I hate about Canva. Just move it to my folder and have it in one location!