5 Genius Canva Hacks and Features You May Not Know About

Last updated on 26 March 2025

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Did you know about these Canva hacks?

I don’t know about you, but ever since discovering the wonders of Canva I have really upped my design game. Of course, it helped that I now have an Instagram page dedicated to blogging, social media and Pinterest tips, but even if I didn’t have that Instagram page up and running, I would use Canva for the vast array of other projects I have on the go. And you know what’s even better than Canva? Canva hacks.

Like any programme – design or otherwise – Canva has so many amazing features that you can easily overlook, especially if you’re going in and out every day and just doing what you would normally do.

We often miss features that would be life-changing for our design projects. Luckily for us all, all it takes is a seemingly random discovery, excitement, and a blogger to share it all.

5 genius Canva hacks you didn’t know about

1. Canva tidy up feature
2. Canva Collections
3. Canva Smartmockups
4. Canva Image Adjust
5. CanvaPresentations

Canva Tidy Up Feature

Elements all over the place? I get it. I often find elements that I love and just insert them all so I can play around with them. But it does mean that they often end up all over the place. Even when I’m adding text in multiple fonts. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a really easy way to tidy them all up?

There is.

Select all your elements/text, then click Position in the top right (desktop version), then at the bottom under Space Evenly choose Tidy Up, and watch the magic happen!

You can also select Vertically or Horizontally if you just need to tweak a few things.

Canva Collections

So you’re scrolling through Canva’s amazing Elements and you come across a really great one, perfect for what you want on your project. If you click on the three dots at the top-right of the Element, you’ll see further options. Things such as Add to Likes, Add to Folder, See more like this. But on occasion, you’ll come across an Element with an additional action listed: View Collection.

This is different from ‘See more like this’ because these Elements have been specifically designed to go together. They’ve been created by the same artist, and they will all have the same look at feel to them.

You can then use them for projects where you want the same theme running throughout, the same icons, or just the same designs. Note: They’re also called Sets, and you can see the Set number at the top of the Collection.

Canva Smartmockups

This Canva feature came out in 2021 and it’s brilliant for being able to insert your own screenshots and products into mockups of laptops, phones, posters and more … and do so in just a click!

First, insert the image you want to display inside the mockup on a blank Canva design. Click the image, then go to Effects. When you see Smartmockups, chose to See All, and then simply select the mockup you wish to use.

It will think about it for a moment, and then insert your original image into the mockup! So simple, and so much easier than trying to awkwardly insert the screenshots of your social media, website or blogs onto other images. In my example here, I’ve inserted a screenshot of my Pinterest account.

Canva Image Adjust

You probably know that you can make adjustments to you images, right? Right. You insert an image, and head on up to Adjust to change things like the Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Tint, Blur, X-Process and Vignette.

But did you know you can SAVE that custom filter and use it again on other images?

It requires a Note app or a Google Keep sticky note or something, but here’s how you do it:

After creating the custom filter as I’ve down below, you can then head down to the bottom where it says ‘Filter Code’. If you move some of the sliders you’ll notice that that number changes. That’s because the filter that you’re creating has a unique code.

If you copy that code and save it somewhere, the next time you want to use that same filter, you can just copy and paste it into this box on Canva! This is great if you want your images or social media feeds to have the same cohesive look.

Canva Presentations

Long gone are the days of meh PowerPoint presentations. Not only can you do all your presentation designing on Canva, but you can present it right there on the site!

First, create your presentation by choosing a Presentation template (or start from scratch).

Then click Present in the top right-hand corner. You can choose between Standard (advance the presentation at your own pace), Autoplay (set the speed to automatically play through the presentation), or Presenter View (which allow you to see the upcoming slides).

I’ve chosen the Presenter view to show you what it’s like. You’ll be able to see two Windows (perfect if you have two monitors going!), one will be what your audience is seeing, and the other is your own view. In this case, that larger view at the back is what only I can see, and the smaller window in the foreground is what you, the audience can see.

The Presenter View allows you to add notes on the right-hand side so you can talk at your slides with confidence, as well as being back to see what slide is coming up.

On your design, there is a link that you can send to your class/audience, and you can also Go Live and have your audience ask you questions as you go.

How many of these Canva hacks did you know?