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Canva

Connect Canva and bring in designs as slides or videos.

If you design in Canva, you can bring your designs straight into Pixigns without downloading and uploading files. Connect your business's Canva account once. After that, any owner or editor can pick a design and add it to your library as slides, a video or pictures. Designs that come in as slides update when you change them in Canva.

Canva comes with the Basic and Premium plans. If there's no Canva in the Create menu under Media, Canva isn't available for your business yet. You can still download a design from Canva as a PDF, MP4 or picture and upload it. See Your media library.

Connect your Canva account

Each business connects one Canva account. Owners and editors can connect it.

Go to Media, open the Create menu and choose Canva.
Press Connect Canva. Canva opens and asks you to sign in, if you aren't already.
Allow Pixigns to see your designs. Pixigns asks only to read your designs and export them. It can't change or delete anything in Canva.
You come back to Pixigns and see Canva is connected. Pick a design.

You can see the connection any time in Settings, under Canva: who connected it and when. Everyone on your team sees this, but only owners and editors can connect or disconnect it.

If connecting doesn't work, Pixigns says why:

Canva wasn't connected: access wasn't allowed. You chose not to allow it in Canva. Try again and allow it.
That Canva connection took too long or was already used. Connect Canva again. The connection has to be finished within ten minutes, and each attempt works once. Press Connect Canva again.

Bring in a design

In Media, open Create and choose Canva.
Your designs are listed with the most recently changed first. Type in Search your designs to find one by name, and press Show More to see older ones.
Click a design to pick it.
Under Bring it in, choose how (see below).
Check the Name in the library. It starts as the design's name in Canva.
Press Add to Library.

Canva makes the file and Pixigns downloads and checks it. Once it's ready, add it to a playlist like any other file in your library.

Slides, a video, or pictures

Bring it in	What you get	Updates from Canva?
As slides (PDF)	A document whose pages are each a picture the size of your TVs. Add it to a playlist and every page becomes a slide. Up to 50 pages are used.	Yes, by itself once a day, or when you choose Update from Canva.
As a video (MP4)	For animated designs. The design's pages play one after another as one video, at 1080p, in the design's own shape.	When you choose Update from Canva.
As pictures	Each page becomes a picture of its own in your library, which you can use anywhere, in your designs too.	No. They're ordinary pictures once they're in.

Canva doesn't tell Pixigns whether a design is animated, so you choose. The next time you bring in the same design, Pixigns picks the same choice as last time.

For slides and pictures, keep the Pixigns tab open until the pages are made. Your browser draws them at your TVs' size, and it stops if you close the tab. If you do close it, open the document in Media and press Make Pages.

Keep a design up to date

When you change a design in Canva, Pixigns can bring in the new version without changing your playlists.

Update from Canva

In Media, open the design.
Press Update from Canva.
When it's done you'll see Updated: 2 pages. Publish to show them on the TVs. (with your number of pages).
Publish the playlists that use it. The design's drawer names them under New pages are ready.

What happens to your slides when a design updates:

Each slide showing a page now shows the new version of that page, in the same place, with the same timing and schedule.
If the design has gained pages, new slides are added after its last slide in each playlist, set up the same way.
If the design has lost pages, the slides for those pages are removed.
A video keeps its place in every playlist; the new file simply replaces the old one.

Nothing reaches the TVs until you publish, so you can check the new pages first.

Every day, by itself

A design brought in as slides checks Canva once a day for changes. The checkbox Update from Canva every day in its drawer is on to begin with. If the design hasn't changed, nothing happens. If it has, its pages are made again and the drawer says New pages are ready. You still publish to show them on the TVs.

Turn the checkbox off if you'd rather update only when you choose. If a daily check fails, the drawer says Couldn't update from Canva and why, and the pages you have stay as they are.

Canva in other places

Where Pixigns asks for a picture, such as a playlist's new slide or the design editor's Photos and Backdrop, there's a From Canva button. It brings a design's pages in as pictures and uses them there. In the editor's Backdrop, the design's first page goes behind the slide.

Disconnect Canva

Go to Settings, find Canva, and press Disconnect.
Confirm. You'll see Canva is disconnected.

Designs you brought in stay in your library and keep playing. They can't be updated from Canva until someone connects it again. You can connect a different Canva account afterwards.

If something goes wrong

Pixigns says	What to do
Canva needs connecting again: its connection was turned off in Canva or has expired.	The connection was removed in Canva, or it ran out. Press Connect Canva in Settings or in Create → Canva. Your designs are still in your library.
This design uses paid Canva elements that the connected account hasn't licensed.	Buy the elements in Canva, or swap them for free ones, then try again.
This design needs approval in Canva before it can be exported.	Ask your Canva team's admin to approve it.
That design isn't in the connected Canva account any more, or it isn't shared with it.	The design was deleted or unshared in Canva. Share it with the connected account again, or pick another design.
Canva made a separate file for each page of this design. Import it as slides instead.	Pick the design again and choose As slides (PDF).
Canva is busy with this account's exports, or is taking too long to export this design.	Wait a few minutes, then try again.
Canva couldn't export this design.	Try again in a few minutes. If it keeps happening, download the design from Canva and upload it instead.

Still stuck? Email support@pixigns.com with your business's address and the screen's name, and we'll help.