Converting Designs

Coming Soon

Opening the Slate app

With the Slate app installed, open any Canva presentation and launch Slate from the side panel. The app checks that your design has content and gets it ready to convert.

If you open the app on a blank or nearly empty design, you’ll see a reminder to use a presentation that has content. Add content to your design, then click Check again without leaving the app.

Configuring your course

Before converting, you’ll set parameters that shape the output:

• Course title - defaults to your Canva design title. You can change it to anything.
• Course duration - target completion time (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, or 40 minutes). Defaults to 20 minutes.
• Target audience - who the course is for (e.g., new hires, managers, customers)
• Learning objectives - what learners should know or be able to do after completing the course
• Tone - conversational, formal, or fun
• Additional notes - any extra instructions for the AI (e.g., “keep it practical, include real examples”)
• Assessment - the Include assessment checkbox is on by default. While it’s checked, a slider sets how many questions to add, starting at 5 and going up to 10. Clear the checkbox to skip the assessment. When included, it’s added as a scored section at the end of the course.
• Apply my default Slate theme - if you’ve configured a default theme in the Slate Theme Editor, this checkbox appears. When enabled, your theme colors, fonts, and styling are applied to the generated course. Enabled by default when a theme is available.

The draft is generated in the Default source language set in Settings > Profile in Slate. Slate supports 15 languages. To change the language for new conversions, update your profile setting before launching the app from Canva.

Sending your slides

When you click Convert to course, Slate gathers the content from your design:

• Multi-slide presentations - Canva opens its export dialog. Choose to send the whole deck or just specific pages. Slate uses the exported file (a PDF, up to 20 MB) as the source material for your course.
• Single-page designs - Slate reads the content directly, with no export step.

Choosing your slides gives you control over exactly what the AI works from. Leave out title slides, appendices, or anything you don’t want in the course.

When Canva prompts you, approve the export so Slate can read your slides. If you dismiss the dialog, the conversion stops and you can start again when you’re ready.

How AI converts your content

The AI doesn’t just copy slides into lessons. It performs intelligent content extraction:

• Reads slide content and reconstructs the logical flow
• Structures content into sections and lessons with proper learning cadence
• Adds interactions and knowledge checks throughout the course
• Generates a scored assessment section if enabled, with the number of questions you specified
• Applies your default Slate theme if selected

Text content from your presentation is converted into structured lessons. The course includes placeholder image blocks that mark where visuals work best - replace them with your own images in the Slate editor after conversion.

Credit cost

Each conversion uses 1,250 AI credits. Your current credit balance is displayed above the conversion form.

Plan limits

Free accounts can have up to 5 courses in their library at any time. This limit applies wherever a course is created, including conversions from the Canva app. If you’re at the limit, the conversion is blocked before any credits are spent and the app prompts you to free up space or upgrade. Standard and Pro plans have higher or unlimited course limits.

After conversion

Once your course is in Slate, you can:

• Edit and refine - modify any section, lesson, or block in the Slate Builder
• Add interactivity - insert additional blocks like accordions, tabs, flip cards, or labeled graphics
• Apply a theme - customize the visual design or apply a different theme
• Translate - use AI translation to create multi-language versions
• Export - export as SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, xAPI, cmi5, HTML, or PDF
• Share & track - create tracked links to monitor learner engagement

Your converted course is automatically tagged with canva in your library for easy filtering.

If a conversion doesn’t go through

If a conversion can’t complete, the app shows a short message explaining what happened and what to do. The most common cases:

• Not enough content - the design needs readable text on its slides. Add text, then convert again.
• Export cancelled - the Canva export dialog was closed before it finished. Start the conversion again and approve the export.
• Presentation too large - the exported file is over the 20 MB limit. Remove some slides or large images, or send fewer pages, then try again.
• Not enough credits - a conversion needs 1,250 credits. Top up or upgrade in Slate, then try again.