Canva is a popular graphic design platform that makes it easy for anyone to create beautiful designs, presentations, social media posts, and more even if you don’t have any design experience. One of the great things about Canva is that you can upload your own content like images, charts, graphics etc to use in your Canva designs.
This includes being able to upload Google Slides presentations that you have already created into Canva as images. This allows you to take advantage of slides and presentations you have already made and reuse them by turning them into designs, graphics, posts and more on Canva.
In this step-by-step guide, I’ll explain exactly how to upload your Google Slides presentations into Canva so you can repurpose them for all kinds of great graphical content.
Prerequisites
- A Google account
- Google Slides presentations already created that you want to reuse
- A Canva account
Step 1: Export Google Slides as Images
The first thing you need to do is export your Google Slides presentation as a series of images. Here is how:
- Open the Google Slides presentation in your Google Drive that you want to upload to Canva
- Click on “File” and select “Download”
- In the drop-down menu, click on “PNG” to download as image files
- Make sure the download quality is set to “Standard” or “High”
- Click on “Download All”
This will download your Google Slides as a folder containing each slide as an individual .PNG image file. Make note of where these files download to on your computer.
Step 2: Upload Image Folder to Canva
Next, you need to upload the folder containing the Google Slides images to Canva:
- Go to Canva.com and login to your account
- Click on “Uploads” on the left sidebar
- Click on “Folder”
- Select the folder on your computer containing the Google Slides images
- Click “Open”. This will upload the entire contents of the folder to Canva’s image library
Step 3: Create a New Canva Design
Now you can insert your Google Slides images into a brand new Canva design:
- Click “+” to start a new Canva design
- Select the type of design you want to make like a presentation, social graphic etc.
- Search for and insert the Google Slides images from your Uploads section
- Arrange and edit the slides by adding text, changing colors, applying filters etc.
- Once done, click “Download” to save your new creation featuring your Google Slides content!
Here are some examples of Canva designs you can make from Google Slides uploads:
- Presentation slides (great for virtual meetings, webinars etc)
- Social media posts and graphics
- Blog header images or graphics
- YouTube video thumbnails
- Visual reports, whitepapers or eBooks
- Infographics
- Marketing materials like flyers, posters etc
So get creative! With Canva’s user-friendly design tools combined with your existing Google Slides, you can easily give your content a fresh new look.
Tips for Optimizing Google Slides Images
Here are some tips to ensure your uploaded Google Slides images look great in your Canva designs:
- Clean up slides first – Delete any slide notes, fix formatting issues, adjust colors, fonts etc in Google slides before exporting to get clean images
- Simplify designs – Remove unnecessary design elements and clutter from slides so graphics and text pop in Canva designs
- Enhance readability – Use high contrast colors and big, bold fonts so text is readable when exported as smaller graphics
- Crop carefully – When inserting slides into Canva, use cropping tools to highlight key elements
More Ways to Use Google Slides in Canva
In addition to uploading Google Slides images, here are two other methods to leverage your Slides content on Canva:
1. Copy-Paste Text and Elements
You can copy text, bullet points, tables etc from Google Slides and paste it directly into Canva designs. This maintains fonts, colors and formatting for quick transfer of slide content.
2. Integrate Google Drive
Connect your Google Drive account in Canva preferences. Then you can insert slides directly from Drive into designs as movable elements, keeping them linked to the live Google file.
So as you can see, Canva provides seamless integration with Google Slides, making your presentations infinitely reusable for all kinds of creative designs!