We all know the importance of growing an email list. One of the most popular techniques for growing your list is to use content upgrades. If you don’t know what a content upgrade is, allow me to briefly fill you in.
A content upgrade is something you give away that’s related to your blog post in exchange for an email address. So for example, on my blog post on prioritizing website tasks, I give away a printable task list. Of course a content upgrade can be anything, from graphics, to video content, to a podcast episode. The sky is the limit.
But if you’re looking for something quick, easy, and immensely popular, worksheets and workbooks are the way to go. And believe it or not, you don’t need any fancy tools to create them. If you don’t have Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop, that’s not a problem! Thanks to Canva, you can easily make worksheets and workbooks for FREE. Continue reading to find out how.
First things first, you’re going to need to create a Canva account if you don’t already have one, so go ahead and do that. If you already have an account, sign in.
Since worksheets are usually letter sized, that’s the size document we need to create. Under the create a design section, click on the plus sign to reveal more document size options. Under documents select US Letter.
Now we have our document all ready to go so it’s time to start adding content.
Let’s give our worksheet a heading. Click on text, then add heading. Edit the text, change the font and color, and position it on your document.
Now it’s time to start adding the content. We’ll start by adding some body text. Click on “add a little bit of body text,” change the text, customize the color, font, etc, and position it on your document.
Since we’re creating a printable worksheet/workbook, I’m going to add some spaces for people to write in. Click on elements on the left side of the screen, then select shapes. I’m choosing to use a square with an outline for this example. Click on your shape of choice, then customize it and position it below your body text.
If you want to keep the same style for the next item, you can select both the text and the box (drag your mouse to select both) and click copy. Then position it below the first one and edit the text. Repeat as necessary. If you want to style each item differently, then repeat the above steps.
Once you’ve ran out of room on the first page, you have two options. Option #1 is to duplicate the page. Since the first page is setup already, this makes it easy to go in and edit each item, while keeping the same layout. To duplicate a page, click on the duplicate button to the right of the current page.
Option #2 is to add a new blank page. To add a new page, click on the add a new page button below your current page.
Repeat as necessary until your workbook is complete. If you want to reorder the pages, click on the up or down arrows that are above/below the page number on the right side of the page. Keep clicking until your pages are in the correct order.
Once your worksheet or workbook is complete it’s time to save it so you can distribute it. Click on download from the top menu, then select either PDF: standard or PDF: for print. The one you choose doesn’t matter too much. If you’ve included images, etc and want a higher quality, then select for print. Otherwise, standard works just fine for this.
If you want to get really fancy, you can insert photos, create interesting layouts, etc. There’s definitely no limit to what you can create.
About the Author
Allyssa is a web designer from New Jersey who works with small business owners to create an online presence that elevates their brand to premium status.
This is so helpful! Totally saving this for when I’m able to create something :)
Glad you found it helpful! :)
Thanks for posting this! I am adding it to the resources for my course on creating a course!
Easy steps! I love easy blog posts that has clear steps. I use Canva & Gimp for my biz brand visuals. It saves so much time. Thanks for such a great post!
You’re welcome! I try to break things down as simply as possible. So many sites leave out crucial information and you’re left wondering.
Is there a way to make the workbook interactive so that the consumer can type their answers in to the pdf document?
You’d have to download the pdf file from Canva and then import it into a tool such as Acrobat or another similar tool to add the editable fields.
Thanks for this simple tutorial allyssa.
I love canva. And yes, it’s one of the most simple tools to use for creating your graphics and resources.
I’m going to create more content upgrades so i will definitely use this tutorial.
Xoxo chris
You’re welcome! I hope it’ll come in handy!
Very helpful and great idea! Thanks :)
I was looking for exactly this. I’ve spent a lot of time in Canva but sometimes it gets overwhelming. I need to create something simple but valuable, and now I have a great place to start. Thank you!
You’re welcome! I’m glad this post was able to help you out!
This was so helpful, Allyssa. Thank you.
You’re welcome! So glad you found it helpful!
I have found this helpful
This is SUPER helpful and thank you for a simple explanation! Do you know how you can make the worksheet downloadable after purchase. I want to be able to sell the worksheet. Would really appreciate it!
Thank you,
Jacqueline
You’re welcome! Glad you found it helpful! To sell worksheets you’d have to use a shop plugin or service. Some options include Woocommerce, Gumroad, or Send Owl.
Thank you for your quick response! This is super helpful.
Thanks Allyssa. I’m a total newbie. So glad that you’re making this tutorial very easy to follow. I’m going to try it out. BTW, your blog is interesting & very informative too. Thanks again ?
This was so helpful, and it gave me lots of ideas for using Canva. Thanks.
This was AMAZING – thank you. You made it so simple. I am a Jersey girl, too :). Alexis
I had no idea I could make a workbook using Canva! Thank you for the lesson:) I especially like how you put the hand-drawn arrows on each photo…very helpful!!!
Yes! Canva can do so many things! You’re welcome! :)
Oh, thank you so much. I really wanted to learn this thing. It will help a lot to my class.
Aren’t the number of pages on Canva limited to about 25? My workbook is much longer than that. Do you have to download them? I am a newbie and have created several book series through Canva but I don’t know how to create a text/workbook of approximately 200 pages.
Yes, I believe Canva does have a limit. What I would do is break your workbook into as many files as needed and download each one. Then using either Adobe Acrobat or Merge PDF (https://smallpdf.com/merge-pdf) you can combine those files into one larger pdf.
I found this helpful thank you.. You ROCK!!!!
Great Post Allyssa.
Thanks for sharing. Really helpful.
Thank you. Very helpful
This was so helpful and amazing! Thank you!
Love the way you created this effortlessly and made it look so easy to accomplish, thanks Allyssia.
This is super helpful, thanks for sharing! We are creating our first course and needed a way to create a workbook to go with it. This will help a lot.
This is great! thanks so much.
Thank you for this information. I had not considered using Canva to create a workbook, which is how I found your blog. I’m considering developing one this year. I use Canva for so many “other” things. This was indeed helpful!
This is great. Thank you. Is it possible to make the workbook so people can fill it in online, or would they need to print it up to fill it in? I’m trying to find a way to make an online fill in workbook on a Mac and I haven’t found a way yet. Can you point me in the right direction?
I have a tutorial on that! You can view it here: https://allyssabarnes.com/fillable-pdf-worksheets/
This is good, Alyssa. Certainly I shall use it in my site some time – you have given me ideas. thanks.
Great article! Easy to follow and perfect since I am getting ready to create a template like this for my email marketing.
Thank you Alyssa!
This was super helpful! I’m pretty active in Canva for Pinterest but hadn’t considered making printables there. Great screenshots as well and so easy to follow along. Thanks!
Can you print this if you want to make for a group?
Thank for this! It was easy to follow. I will continue following you for future help!
I see that people sometimes sell their worksheets/workbooks on their blogs. Can you do that with content you create in Canva?
What do you actually print this on to create the workbook?
Can You Make a Addition Worksheet Please?
Hey!
Thank you! I want to make a workbook for purchase but I’m unclear if that still means I can use canva. Any thoughts?
This intro was so awesome. Thanks