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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• ChatGPT can turn your prompts into pretty Canva presentations.
• Deep Research can help plan your content before hand.
• Canva lets you quickly edit, customize, and share the final deck.

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This year, my husband’s family is doing something different for Christmas.

Everyone is coming up with their own vacation idea, and we’re each presenting it on Christmas Day. The rules are simple: The best presentation wins, everyone pays their share, and we’ll all go on a trip together next summer. No pressure, right?

I already saved a ton of time using ChatGPT’s Deep Research to plan where we’ll go and stay and which attractions we’ll visit. Spoiler alert: My husband, his three brothers, his sister-in-law, and I all majored in either English, journalism, or library science. We’re obsessed with reading... and Stephen King. So, a Maine trip to see Bangor, the beach, and Derry-inspired landmarks seems perfect.

**Also: **I tested the new ChatGPT Images - it’s a stunning improvement, and enormously fun

But turning all of that into a pretty presentation that could win everyone’s vote? Blah, that’ll take forever. Or will it?

I decided to try using Canva directly inside ChatGPT to turn my Maine vacation itinerary into a presentation. I couldn’t believe that what normally would have taken me hours in Google Slides took just a few minutes. Here’s how I did it.

How to use Canva with ChatGPT

**What you’ll need: **A ChatGPT account and a Canva account. You can use the free tier for either service, but upgrading to ChatGPT Plus ($20 per month) gives you more prompts and fewer limitations, while Canva Pro ($15 per month) unlocks additional features like premium elements and AI tools. I’m subscribed to both, but the workflow described below is perfectly doable as a free user.

Before you do anything, you need to connect your Canva account to your ChatGPT account.

How to connect Canva and ChatGPT

1. Open ChatGPT and sign in to your (Free, Plus, or Pro) account.
2. Go to Settings in ChatGPT.
3. Select Apps and connectors.
4. Find Canva.
5. Click Connect.
6. Sign in to your Canva account (Free or Pro) when prompted.

Also: How I use AI to bring my kid’s art to life - and why it’s a fun learning opportunity

Once connected, ChatGPT can create any design on your behalf, not just presentations. You can make all kinds of documents, from social posts to flyers, using simple natural language prompts.

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Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

You only need to connect to Canva once.

But after that, you still need to select Canva each time you are ready to create something. This tells ChatGPT that you want your output generated as a Canva design instead of a normal text response or a generated image.

How to choose Canva in ChatGPT

1. Start a new conversation in ChatGPT.
2. Simply say, "Canva..." when you begin writing your prompt.
3. Or look for the tool selector next to the prompt field and choose Canva.

Also: Free Photoshop in ChatGPT: How to edit photos with AI, no experience necessary

You’ll know Canva is selected and ready to go once the logo appears in the ChatGPT prompt field.

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Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

This is where ChatGPT really shines, in my opinion. If you’re making a presentation, you don’t need to decide what goes on each slide, plan the structure, or write the bullet points. If you have a particularly meaty topic to distill, you can always use Deep Research for help. Free users get five reports per month, while Plus users get 25 reports.

For example, I used Deep Research to plan my entire trip from scratch.

I shared the number of people and their ages, the budget per person, and that we wanted to visit Stephen King-related locations and spend time at the beach. Deep Research generated a complete report with Airbnb and VRBO recommendations, activity ideas, travel options, and guidance on how to break up the trip into legs.

With all that information at hand, I easily copied it and fed it into my ChatGPT conversation with Canva selected. I specified my goal and the tone I wanted for the presentation, and I called out a few must-have sections.

I prompted ChatGPT to:

• Turn my full family vacation itinerary into a presentation.
• Structure it logically, including an overview, travel days, activities, lodging, and budget.
• Make it visually appealing and easy to present to a large group.
• Keep the tone fun but informative.

Also: Are GPT-5.2’s new powers enough to surpass Gemini 3? Try it and see

You should provide as much detail as possible to achieve the best results.

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Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

ChatGPT took less than five minutes to generate my complete 16-slide deck. Once it finishes, you get a preview, along with links to edit or view the presentation. Clicking either link opens it directly in Canva.

How to edit or view your Canva design

1. Scroll through the preview thumbnails that appear in ChatGPT.
2. Click the Canva edit link or view link to open the design in Canva.
3. Your design will open directly in Canva.
4. Review it, paying special attention to the color, text, and images.

Also: I love Photoshop, but Canva’s free Affinity tools won me over (and saved me money)

The Canva presentation that ChatGPT generated for me looks surprisingly polished right out of the gate.

It has a cohesive, coastal-inspired color palette of soft creams, muted greens, sandy beiges, and ocean blues that immediately scream "Maine." It does lean heavily on illustrated, AI-generated images rather than real photos, giving the deck a cute, storybook feel. It’s admittedly charming, but I’ll want to replace some of that art.

For example, one slide features a faux Paul Bunyan statue and a generic "Stephen King-style" Bangor mansion. I plan to swap those out for real photos of the actual landmarks. Several slides also include garbled or placeholder text that needs cleaning up, which I can do myself, ask ChatGPT to handle, or even have Canva rewrite.

Still, the overall structure is solid. Canva gave me a full presentation with clear sections for travel, budgeting, lodging, activities, and logistics. Even with the fixes needed, having a fully designed, well-organized starting point saves a huge amount of time compared to building a presentation from scratch.

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If you’re like me and want the design to feel more personal, Canva gives you full control once you open it. You can replace or rewrite text yourself or with AI, swap photos or add graphic elements, add or delete slides, change fonts and layouts, alter colors to match a theme, and rearrange sections for better flow.

If you’re not comfortable using Canva, you can also refine your prompt in ChatGPT to get a different result.

You can ask ChatGPT to:

• Adjust colors or themes.
• Make the design more playful or more formal.
• Add or delete elements.
• Rework wording.

Also: I tested all of ChatGPT’s new app integrations - here are the ones worth your time

You can ask anything. Just prompt away and see what happens. You can always go back to the first output if you don’t like the follow-up generations. It’s fun to experiment. However, I must admit that I tried this with mixed results.

Rather than continuously refining prompts, I found it easier to jump into Canva and make edits manually. Still, this option is useful if you’d rather stay in ChatGPT.

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Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

Once everything looks good, Canva makes it easy to share your presentation. Just hit the large Share button in the top corner, and you’ll see options to download, share, present, print, and more.

In Canva, you can:

• Download (PDF, presentation, and other formats) your design.
• Generate a public view link.
• Present directly from Canva.
• Record a narrated presentation.
• Print if you’re feeling old-school.

Also: How to learn ChatGPT in under an hour using my favorite guides and videos - for free

For my Christmas presentation, I’ll probably present directly from Canva.

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Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

Do you need to pay to use the Canva in ChatGPT?

No. You don’t need a paid Canva Pro account or a paid ChatGPT Plus account to connect Canva with ChatGPT.

Can you make designs other than presentations?

Yes. Canva in ChatGPT can create social graphics, documents, posters, and more. Presentations are just one option.

Is using ChatGPT better than making slides manually?

For speed, absolutely. You still have full creative control, but you don’t have to start from scratch and can even get some inspiration.

Can you use ChatGPT Deep Research for help?

For sure. I used Deep Research to plan my itinerary first, then fed that information into Canva via ChatGPT to create my presentation.

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