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If you’re here, you probably want to create a workbook or planner that actually looks good, something you’re proud to put in front of your clients or students, but you’re not ready (or able) to hire a designer. And if Canva has felt a bit overwhelming (or you’ve procrastinated because starting from scratch feels… big?), you’re in the right place.
Whether you want to make a workbook for an online workshop, a welcome guide for clients, a planner, a lead magnet, or any other kind of digital workbook or fillable worksheet, watch this video or read on for the step-by-step on how to create a fillable PDF in Canva.
I work with clients every week who just want something simple, pro-looking, and quick, without a huge price tag or the stress of figuring it all out alone. So in this tutorial, I’m sharing the step-by-step process (and lots of shortcuts) to help you skip the struggle and create something you’ll be proud to share.
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.
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 Portrait size in the screenshots below.
How do you create a digital workbook from a template?
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.
Here’s what others have said about my templates:
Being able to grab and customise the pages I want (and there are so many great options!), and not be faced with a blank A4 doc in Canva, has taken so much of the friction out of the process for me. I’ve downloaded a lot of templates before, but this is the only one I’ve been able to actually use, and not once, but over and over again.
Your template saved me so much time and also saved me from continuing to procrastinate because I didn’t want to start from scratch again. Plus, it’s gorgeous!
See how easy it can be: get your template and get started.
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.
Alternatively, you can upload your own photos or use photos from your Canva Brand Kit if you’ve set that up to have photos.
Click and drag the photo over the page, then release your mouse button when it looks like it covers the entire page.
If you dropped the photo onto the page but it’s not filling the entire page, you can click a corner and drag to resize it to fill the entire page.
Depending on the photo, you may want to add a block where you can add text. To do so, click Elements on the left-hand side, select Shapes, 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.
Need a professionally designed workbook? Check out my Ebook & Workbook Design Services.
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. You can also use a shape as a background for a checklist, and use small boxes for the checklist itself.
How to add a hyperlink to your Canva ebook or workbook
If you have links you want to add to your content, you can select the text you want to add a link to, and then click the Link icon, paste in the URL for the link you want to add and click Done to add the link to the content. It will automatically underline the linked text, but you can also change the styling of the text to a different color, bold, or anything else to make the linked text stand out.
Download your PDF from 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. If you’ve added any links to your ebook, make sure to download it as PDF Standard.
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 and downloaded from 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 and checkboxes.
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.
Need a professionally designed interactive PDF? Hire me for Ebook & Workbook Design and let’s create something stunning together.
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 you’re creating an opt-in freebie, your mailing list provider.
Want to make BETTER ebooks and workbooks in less time?
Read or watch these 10 simple Canva tips that will help your ebooks and workbooks look 10x better.
If this tutorial helped you get unstuck or finally scratch your fillable PDF off your to-do list, I’d love to hear about it! And if you want to make your next workbook even quicker (and even easier), check out my templates—or, if DIY is feeling a bit much, let’s work together to create something beautiful and stress-free.
Got a question, or want to share your finished workbook? Leave a comment below! I love celebrating your wins! ❤️
Thank you so much for this tutorial.
Once it’s in a pdf. In order to fill it out, do peopl e have to open it in a certain software to use it like photoshop/ adobe?
Your clients/students/customers/subscribers can download the PDF and can use Adobe Reader (free) or any other PDF viewer that allows for filling in fillable fields.
This is really helpful, thanks. Does this work well if you plan to mostly use the pdf but may print some as well?
Yes, you can design a PDF that works well if printed, and add fillable fields for those who prefer to use it digitally. That way, it will also work if someone will only print some of it.
Thankyou so much!!
Hi,
I liked your video very much. I wrote a e-book but it is 300 pages and I upgrade the pdf escape but its just work with windows and I have a mac. How could I solv the problem? Can you suggest me something? And one more question, for smaller works do I have to have adobe reader to write on?
Best regards,
Rosangela
Wow, 300 pages is a large e-book! For fillable fields in a large document like that, I recommend using Adobe InDesign which is professional software for creating e-books, workbooks and magazines. It’s not free, but you could sign up for only the InDesign app and for only a month while you need it, then cancel your subscription after you’ve finished your e-book. The great thing about InDesign is that you can edit your e-book without having to add the fillable fields all over again (which you would need to do if using Canva and PDFescape), but there’s more of a learning curve to use InDesign.
I’m not sure what you mean by “For smaller works do I have to have adobe reader to write on?”. No matter the size of the fillable workbook, your clients/students/customers/subscribers can download the PDF and use Adobe Reader (free) or any other PDF viewer that allows for filling in fillable fields. It doesn’t have to be Adobe Reader, but it’s free and the most well-known PDF reader. Please let me know if that answers your question or you wanted to know something else.