Oh Canva, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. . . .
Okay, so Elizabeth Barrett Browning I am not. I do, however, have a long list of reasons why Canva is a church communicator’s best friend. Like many, my first introduction to Canva’s superpowers was learning how to create those really beautiful, crisp, professional-looking social media graphics. But there are so many other ways Canva can be used in your congregation’s communication efforts!
Pinterest is like a virtual bulletin board or pinboard where you can share things that you are passionate about and love. Members of Pinterest will pin things that they like and things of interest to their account so they can return to them easily. It’s a great place to pick up ideas and learn from others. Pictures, quotes, recipe ideas, activities, crafts, do-it-yourself projects, and more are shared. Basically, Pinterest wants to connect people based on similar interests or organizations.
So you’re thinking of doing a complete redesign of your church website. The theme is dated, the info is out of date, and those 4000kb background images were never good ideas. That’s right. It’s time to burn the whole thing down and start over from scratch.
Done is better than perfect, and I needed to learn to get to “done” faster.
True confessions - rapid fire edition.
Here’s the problem: Most of the time, I work alone, in an office digging away at code, video editing, graphic design, you name it.
Many people who are active in social media and blogging feel pressure to constantly develop new and exciting content. That pressure can sap creativity, making it hard to come up with original content and tempting you to closely copy something someone else has done.
October is not only Pastor Appreciation Month, but it is also conference month! Well, at least for the Kansas and Michigan Districts. Which means, I just sat through a whole bunch of PowerPoint presentations. And, by-and-large they were not pretty. Not trying to criticize, just stating a fact.
Nowadays PowerPoint is easier than ever to use. But, if you grew up in olden times it was quite the tedious program. Because of that I get the sense that many people think that the things they would like to do are cumbersome and time consuming. Well, not anymore. Things are much more streamlined and fairly simple. But, before we dive in, read Katy Munson’s article: How to Use PowerPoint Effectively.
Church newsletters often include copy from a number of contributors, like the pastor, youth director, and volunteers. Likely, they send all that copy in Word documents. And if you design the newsletter in Adobe InDesign, well, then you probably already know Word and InDesign aren’t besties.
If the process of moving from Word to InDesign for your church newsletter is a regular headache, try using styles to streamline your workflow.
PowerPoint can be an effective tool and a helpful presentation software for your church, given its familiarity and accessibility. Here are some very basic ideas for using this program in a way that enhances what you’re trying to say, rather than detracting from it.
Microsoft Word gets a bad rap when it comes to design tools. When you think of designing in Word, do you see pixelated clip art and hot pink Comic Sans? Thankfully, it’s not 1999 any more!
While designing in Word can be frustrating, using this software doesn’t mean your documents need to be ugly or plain. When everyone in your church office, not to mention all of your volunteers, already have Word and know how to use it, it’s a great software solution for your group. (There’s even a free online version, which is awesome when multiple users need to work on the same document.)
I have a confession....I am church communicator, but I am not a graphic designer. <gasp> Don’t get me wrong, I try, but I have no formal training and have grown my skillset through videos tutorials, blog posts, and communication/marketing discussion groups.
