Digital Planner Courses and Resources
Digital planners are fun to make (once you know how) and they provide a wonderful vehicle for delivering your content and generating revenue streams.
When creating your digital planner foundation – so it looks like an actual physical planner with wire coils and a cover with an attractive clasp, there are several options available to you.
You can purchase a pre-made digital planner cover and cover inside view. Then to add you content, you pull the digital planner inside view into the program you are using to create the content for your pages.
You can find digital planner covers over on Etsy, in fact I have many of them in my shop at: https://ShareYourBrilliance.Etsy.com
Another option for your digital planner cover and inside view, is to create it yourself. The most popular programs for creating digital planner content as well as the front and inside covers are:
- PowerPoint
- Keynote
- Affinity Publisher
- InDesign
There are several aspects of a digital planner that you’ll need, in order for your digital planner to work properly. Once you have the inside cover, you need to add pages, section dividers and planner tabs that users can click on to get from section to section.
The good news is, you can create all of this in one of the above programs.
You can find countless videos on YouTube that walk you through the process, or you can take an online course that will walk you through the process step by step.
Like anything new, you need to take the time to study and then apply what you learn.
Here’s a list of courses I’ve taken and highly recommend. Taking a course on designing digital planners will serve you well and provide you with a solid foundation for creating your planners.
For PowerPoint I recommend Digital Planner Bonanza with Di Heuser and Marian Blake. Here’s where you go to check out this course:
For Keynote and InDesign I recommend Digital Planner Template Kit with Michelle Rohr and Aimee Johanan.
For Affinity Publisher I recommend Affinity Ease with Simone Heuser.
For Graphic Images and digital paper backgrounds you can use for your covers and inside your planner, I recommend:
- My Etsy Shop: https://ShareYourBrilliance.etsy.com
- Creative Fabrica: https://ShareYourBrilliance.com/images
- The Hungry JPG: https://ShareYourBrilliance.com/graphics
For Creating Marketing Graphics for social media and your Etsy shop etc. I recommend Canva.
To get started creating planners and having a lot of fun:
Step 1: For Mac Users: Decide on the software you’ll use to create your planners. Note: If you use a Mac, go with Keynote as the easiest option. The reason you would not want to use PowerPoint on a Mac is, there are issues with getting the tabs to link properly. So to avoid frustration, Mac users should go with Keynote. (For Mac users who are fans of InDesign or Affinity Publisher, those are other options to explore – however Keynote works great.)
Step 1 for PC Users: Identify which of the above software programs you are already familiar with or that you’d like to get comfortable with. Decide which of the above software programs you’d like to learn on.
Step 2: Learn How to Create Digital Planners: Spend time on YouTube going through tutorials on various aspects of creating digital planners or register for a course on the topic. I highly recommend the above courses, as I’ve gone through each of them and learned a great deal.
Step 3: Go for It! Study and apply what you learn. I recommend that whatever course you go through, that you take it one step at a time. Go through a module or lessons, stop the videos and rewind if needed until you understand the process, and then apply what you learn.
By creating a digital planner, one step at a time, as you go through the training, you’ll have a completed planner as the end of the course. Consider it to be your “class project.”
Have fun creating digital planners and please keep me posted, I’d love to see what you create.
Cheering you on!
D’vorah