How to create an interactive, fillable PDF workbook using Canva

Whether you want to create a workbook for an online workshop, a welcome guide for clients, a planner, or any other kind of digitally fillable PDF, read on (or watch the video below) for the step-by-step on how to create a workbook in Canva and how to add fillable fields to it using a free online tool.

Don’t want to start from scratch? Get one of my E-book/Workbook Templates to get you started quickly! They’re available in US Letter as well as A4 size.

Before you start designing

Write & Edit your text ahead of time, so it’s done and ready to go when you start designing

Before you start designing, I recommend you write the text for your workbook or worksheet in Google Docs or something similar, the design process will go much faster if your text is already done and ready to go.

DIY Design tip: Keep it simple

And when you’re designing your workbook in Canva, one easy way to make your DIY design look great is to keep it simple. Don’t go overboard with colors, patterns, and background images.

For workbooks and worksheets especially, keep it simple. Be kind to your people. Some people might prefer to print it out and fill it out by hand. So you don’t want to use a lot of colors everywhere.

Don’t add multiple single-line text boxes for paragraph answers

When clients hire me to redesign their workbooks, I notice one common pitfall a lot of DIY-ers make. They’ve created lines for their students or participants to write on, then added single-line boxes to type in on each line.

The problem with this is that people can’t keep typing but would have to click over to a new line instead. It’s easier for your workshop participants to fill out digitally if the fillable parts are boxes that have multi-line fields, so they can keep typing and it just uses the space there is, instead of them having to click on another line if they type a lot of text.

How to design your workbook in Canva

Create a new design in Canva. It can be any size you like, although common sizes are US Letter or A4 (international). I use A4 size in the video as well as in the screenshots below.

How do you create a digital workbook from a template?

Don’t want to start from scratch? Get one of my E-book/Workbook Templates to get you started quickly! They’re available in US Letter as well as A4 size.

My E-book/Workbook Templates have 89 pages including cover page designs, section/chapter title page layouts, and A LOT of different types of content page layouts, such as roadmaps, challenges, and planners, and of course, worksheet pages.

Choose from multiple page variations, duplicate and rearrange pages to create endless ebook and workbook layouts.

Designing the title page for your interactive PDF workbook, planner or guide

Click Photos on the left-hand side and choose a photo to use as the background image for your cover page.

Depending on the photo, you may want to add a block where you can put your title. To do so, click Elements on the left-hand side, and select a square or another shape you want to use for this. You can use a color or use a white block that you make slightly transparent.

Click Text on the left-hand side and add your title. You can also add your name, program or course name, and any other information you want to add on your title page.

Designing a worksheet for your editable PDF workbook, planner or guide

Click Text on the left-hand side and add a heading, subheading, or body text, or pick from one of the text templates Canva provides. Change the font and color to make it fit your brand. Add some text to introduce your worksheet and explain everything someone needs to know before filling it out.

Then, add the visuals for your fields. Add the labels or questions for the fields the same way you add any other text. Add the field background by using shapes from the Elements menu in Canva.

When you’re done designing your worksheet, download by click the Share button in the top right corner of Canva, then click Download. Download it as a PDF. For our purposes, whether it’s Standard or Print doesn’t matter.

How to add fillable fields to your PDF workbook or worksheet and make your PDF interactive

Open the free online PDF editor from PDFescape. Select Upload PDF to PDFescape and upload the PDF you just created in Canva. At the top left, you can choose to insert a Form Field. You can choose from these types:

Text – for just one line of text, such as name or email address, or a paragraph of text, like a comment box. See below for how to create a paragraph or multi-line text field.

Checkbox – For a “Yes, I agree” checkbox, or, of course, a checklist.

Radiobutton – For a list of choices where only one choice can be made, like Yes/No.

Dropdown – For a list of choices where only one choice can be made. The list is only visible when it’s opened by clicking the arrow. Useful for a large list of choices, such as countries or U.S. states.

Listbox – Similar to a dropdown, but shows more options at once and allows for multiple options to be selected.

Reset button – clears input from all the fields

Submit button – if you want the form to be sent somewhere

Click and drag over the fields you designed in Canva to create the fillable fields.

If you make a mistake, you can change the size of the fillable fields by first clicking the Edit button (or pencil, if there’s no text for these buttons on your screen size) at the top.

Then click the field you need to edit, and an outline with dots will appear. Click and drag one of the dots to change the size of the field.

If you want to create a field for a paragraph of text, you’ll need to add a regular text field first. Then, in Edit mode, click the wrench icon.

Then, in the field settings, select the checkbox for multi-line and click OK.

If you need to delete a field, you can also do this in Edit mode. Simply click the field you need to delete to select it and click the trash can at the top.

Finally, click the purple arrow icon to save & download your fillable PDF.

Open the PDF you downloaded, check that your interactive workbook is working as expected, go back and make changes if needed, then upload it to your website, your course platform, or if it’s an opt-in freebie, your mailing list provider.