Canva has become one of the most popular and easiest-to-use graphic design tools available today. With its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, you can create beautiful designs for social media posts, presentations, posters, documents, and more in minutes.
But did you know that you can also create full-fledged slideshow presentations within Canva?
That’s right!
With Canva’s presentation and video projects, you can add multiple slides – consisting of photos, videos, graphics, etc – and turn it into an engaging presentation.
And the best part is, you have full control over the duration of each individual slide in your Canva presentation.
So whether you want a photo to stay on screen for 10 seconds or a video clip to play for 30 seconds, you can customize it all as per your preference.
In this step-by-step tutorial, let’s look at how to change the duration of slides in Canva quickly and easily.
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How To Change The Duration of Slides In Canva
While 5 seconds may work for some slides, more often than not, you’d want to increase or decrease this default duration to better suit each specific slide.
There can be multiple ways to adjust the duration of each slide in Canva, let’s take a look at them:
1. Create or Open Your Presentation
Keep in mind, the presentation canvas is different than the normal design template that you create.
In the presentation design canvas, you will get a timeline at the bottom, while in the normal design canvas, you usually work on pages rather than on slides and timelines.
So to create a presentation canvas, click on the “Create a Design” button from the top right corner of the screen.
Now search for “Presentation” in the search bar and click on the presentation landscape to create a blank presentation canvas.
You can also search for “Video” template, both will work.
If you already have a penetration created inside canva you can open it up and skip this step.
2. Click On Duration Option From The Bottom
If you have created a blank canvas, first create your presentation by adding more slides, texts, elements, etc.
For the demonstration purpose, i am using a premade presentation template.
To modify a slide’s timing, you first need to switch to duration mode from the bottom of the timeline.
Simply click on the “Duration” option and you will be able to see the duration of each slide in seconds.
3. Increase or Decrease Duration
After clicking the duration button, click on any slide whose duration you want to change.
Now you will see draggable handles on both side of the slide within the timeline.
If you want to increase or decrease the duration from the end of the slide then drag the right slider to left or right.
If you want to increase or decrease the duration from the beginning of the slide then drag the left slider to left or right.
Fun Fact: You can set a slide duration to max 30 seconds only.
Key Takeaway: You can also use this alternative method to adjust the slide timing without switching on Duration mode – Click On Slide > Click “Edit Timing” Clock Icon From Top Toolbar > Adjust duration
4. Save the New Timing
While in the duration mode, you can click on each slide one by one and keep adjusting the handles to adjust the slide’s timing.
And once it is done, you can click on the Duration button again to come out of the duration adjustment mode and save your changes.
Customizing the Duration of Video Slides
You can use the same steps to adjust the video slide duration as well.
1. Add Your Video to the Canvas
Go to the Canva video elements section and search for stock videos. Drag and drop any video that you like onto your presentation canvas.
You can also upload your own video from your device using the “Upload” section from the left sidebar.
2. Set the Video as Background
Once added, right-click on the video and select “Set as Background Video” from the menu. This will make it fill the entire slide.
3. Adjust Video Duration
Like with photos, click on the video slide to select it. From the top toolbar, click the scissors icon that says to adjust the video length.
The Crop Video popup will appear. Here you can drag the purple handles on either end of the video timeline to set the desired start and end points.
Tip: Alternatively, you can also click on the “Duration” option from the bottom and adjust your slide duration from there as we did above.
4. Finalize Edits
Click “Done” to save your cropped video duration for that slide.
The duration of your current slide will be the duration of your video present in the background of that slide.
And that’s it! Just follow these same steps to customize the length of all the video clips used in your Canva presentation.
Other Tips for Changing Slide Duration
Here are some additional pointers to keep in mind when modifying timings in a Canva presentation:
- You need to edit each slide’s duration individually. There’s no way to bulk edit timings for multiple slides together.
- The process is the same whether you have photos, videos or graphics as slides. Just select and adjust the duration.
- For videos, the cropping capability lets you trim down long clips. But overall Canva provides only basic video editing features.
- Try previewing the presentation to ensure the slide durations work well before exporting your final video.
Good to Know: Your exported Canva presentation video will have 1080P resolution by default so the quality is quite high.
Final Words
I hope this gave you a good idea of how to change the duration of slides in Canva.
A tip from me: Try not to make your slides longer, make sure there is something happening on the screen otherwise it may get boring.
The important thing is that you can make your presentation flow smoothly by customizing the slide durations. Your audience will stay focused on your message.
Read more Canva-related tips and tutorials on our blog.
Thanks for reading this short Canva tutorial.
Please ask any other questions you have in the comments! I’m happy to explain things more simply if needed. The more you learn about Canva, the better your presentations will be.
Hey there! I’m Rohit Lohia, a passionate SEO enthusiast and the proud founder of Branded Bucks. I’m all about helping small business owners achieve success online through my blog. Join me on this exciting journey as we explore ways to make money online and build a thriving digital presence.