How to create mind maps in Canva (plus a gallery of stunning examples)

Canva, the über-popular web-based graphic design studio, makes it easy to create everything from social media images and charts to brochures and mind maps. Mind maps? Yes, you heard that correctly – mind maps.

I’ve been an avid user of Canva for several years now. I use it to create images for all of the online content I write. I highly recommend it. So when Canva published a blog post claiming that it enables users to create mind maps, I had to explore its capabilities. Can it really help users make mind maps? Or is it just a bunch of marketing hyperbole?

Here’s the scoop.

Many templates to choose from

Canva offers hundreds of templates that enable you to create almost any kind of visual content. To get started creating a mind map in the application, you simply enter the search term “mind map“ into its search form. What appears is a surprising variety of colorful templates that you can use a starting point for your mind map. I lost count at 100. There are a LOT of mind map templates here!

Some of them look like traditional radial or right-facing maps. Others interpret the term “mind map“ more liberally. They are visual diagrams that display multiple topics in visual relationship with each other, but they don’t conform to the traditional definition of a mind map.

In all cases, these visual diagrams are intended to present and share your ideas with clarity and impact. Canva doesn’t pretend to be a tool where you can privately brainstorm or work through you thinking on a plan or business decision.

Canva’s excellent, easy-to-use toolset makes it easy to quickly modify and embellish any of its attractive templates. Or you can also start from scratch and “roll your own” using the application’s abundant shape and line tools. In the Canva workspace, shapes and lines can be aligned to each other but don’t “snap” together as they do in a dedicated mind mapping or diagramming software program.

But that’s a minor consideration. When you’re presenting your ideas to others, simpler is better.

In conclusion, if you need to express and share your ideas visually and professionally, Canva can help. It provides a cornucopia of fascinating and attractive mind map treatments that are sure to inspire you and give you an excellent starting point for your next project.