With Whiteboards and Canva for Teams, the graphic design platform is targeting distributed workers collaborating on visual content.
Graphic design platform Canva has recently introduced some new features aimed at teams that want to collaborate.
Canva Whiteboards is a new tool that lets people work together and organise their tasks and projects. It is available for free on the web, desktop and mobile.
According to Canva’s CEO and co-founder, Melanie Perkins, the company introduced the tool with distributed teams in mind.
“After more than a year of development, we’re excited to launch Canva Whiteboards to the world, bringing the power our community knows and loves about Canva and enabling them to collaborate with their team on an infinite canvas,” said Perkins.
“In this day and age with teams working worlds apart, we believe the right visual communication tools will not only help teams come together with ease, but will also fuel greater collaboration and productivity in the workplace.”
Canva is an Australian-headquartered company that was founded in 2012. Its platform is used by graphic designers and others who like to work visually, and its integrated marketplace provides creators with free and paid templates so they can easily design content to suit their needs.
Canva Whiteboards was launched around the same time Canva made a play for the distributed workforce market by introducing a new paid subscription plan called Canva for Teams.
Let’s take a look at how you and your team can use Canva’s newest collaboration tools in your working lives.
Canva for Teams
This new paid plan is targeting companies that want to embrace tech as part of the ongoing shift to remote and hybrid working.
“In today’s visual economy, workplaces need to explore new and compelling ways to engage and meet the needs of distributed teams,” as Jen Howard, Canva’s sales lead and head of Canva for Teams, put it.
Canva for Teams takes familiar features from Canva’s Enterprise and Pro subscription plans and combines them into one plan specifically for distributed teams. Teams can collaborate to create visually appealing content, build and scale their brands and engage audiences.
The introduction of the new plan has meant that Canva Pro is now geared towards solo users, while features that were previously only available on Canva for Enterprise are now available with the teams plan.
Canva is a graphic design platform, but you don’t have to be a graphic designer to use it and there are features that could appeal to wider teams. The new plan has templates and easy access to a library of more than 100m images, graphics, videos and audio tracks. Its drag-and-drop editor lets you create content from any device, on the move or in the office.
It can be used to create social media videos, investor reports, sales pitches, recruiting materials and lots more. Any team can use it, whether they are a small business looking to scale or a large multinational.
For teams that want to grow their brands, Canva lets users create ‘brand kits’ which keep specific templates and logos on file so your team can create consistent content.
Canva for Teams offers 1tb of storage per user and unlimited folders, so you can always have your materials to hand on one platform. You can also upload existing files in many formats, such as PDF and PowerPoint.
The Canva for Teams plan will set you back about €140 per year, depending on the size of your team. There is a free trial if you want to try it out first.
Canva Whiteboards
This new feature is available for free as part of the existing Canva editor, and is another addition aimed at teams who want to collaborate. It can be used to workshop ideas with colleagues, plan projects, brainstorm and more.
Whiteboards is essentially a real-time collaboration board where multiple people can work at the same time. You can see exactly what your colleagues are doing on the board thanks to the brightly coloured cursors moving across the screen.
You can respond to the ideas and comments added by your teammates by adding a quick comment yourself or by using an emoji or sticker reaction.
Canva Whiteboards. Image: Canva
To create a Whiteboard, all you have to do is create a new presentation in Canva. Then right-click on a slide and click ‘expand to whiteboard’. Canva has a set of whiteboard templates on its homepage for those who need ideas.
While using the Whiteboards tool, you’ll have full access to Canva’s extensive template library containing audio, images, video and more. You can also use a timer tool to keep your team on track if it is workshopping ideas.
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