Author | Jackie

One of the biggest hurdles stopping many people designing their own digital planner is the software. This will be the first time they’ve come face to face with professional design software and it’s daunting!

What you don’t realise as a beginner is, you don’t need to know everything to get started. 

But, even something as simple as creating a new blank page in design software isn’t as intuitive as using, say, a word processor. You stall again.

So how do you get started? TEMPLATES - that’s how!

Let’s look at why templates are your best friend when designing digital planners.

What are Digital Planner Templates?

There are many types of templates, some I’m sure you’ve come across or used before:

• Planners and calendars
• Printables
• Social media posts
• Websites
• Product mockups
• Workbooks 
• Video transitions
• Resumes
• Presentations, etc…

There is a reason templates are popular and abundant - they mean you don’t have to stare at a blank screen!

It is so much easier to change something that exists than create something from nothing.

Make Your Own Digital Planner Course | examples of templates included in course

Digital Planner Templates

The best Digital Planner Templates are desktop publishing files (e.g. Affinity Publisher, Adobe InDesign, etc).

They are design files, ready to export into a final, hyperlinked digital planner.

Obviously, you wouldn’t want to export them as they are. You will want to customise the colours, fonts and page layouts first.

But, a lot of the hard (and tedious!) work has been done for you:

• the structure is in place
• hyperlinks have been set up (yes, that’s the tedious part)
• and page layouts are done, or at least ideas are in place you can edit

Desktop Publishing Software

Although you could use a word processor like Word or a drag-and-drop graphic editor like Canva to create a digital planner, it would be very frustrating.

Digital Planner files are big documents with an intricate hyperlink structure.

A weekly planner will run to 100+ pages and daily planners can go from 400 to 500 pages. Add the hyperlinks and Word and Canva start to struggle. They just weren’t designed for the job.

Desktop publishing software is built for the job. It can easily manage a document with hundreds of pages and hyperlinks. Not only can it cope, it makes it a breeze! This type of software is also designed to make it user friendly for the designer too - that’s you!

I used Adobe InDesign for many years and it is amazing software. Unfortunately, it is pricey and is based on a subscription model.

I now use and recommend Affinity Publisher V2. It has all the features of Adobe InDesign, is fast and light on your computer, and best of all, is a one-off payment, no subscription, and comes with a 6-month free trial period. What’s not to love!

In terms of creating professional digital planners, I would strongly recommend you use either of these programs.

Affinity Publisher Workspace with Digital Planner Template

How do templates help you design?

So, if I’ve convinced you that desktop publishing templates are the way to go, how exactly do they help you design?

1 | Speed

As mentioned above, the structure and hyperlinking has been done for you. I can’t stress how important this is - particularly the hyperlinking. Not only does this need to be done and done well, it needs to be checked and double checked. All of which takes time.

You mess up the hyperlinks, your customers will be none too pleased!

And, if the template has been well designed and set up correctly, you will benefit from the added speed enhancements of:

• Master Pages
• Global Swatches
• Text Styles
• Tables

2 | Professional Layouts

If you find a well-designed template, you are also benefiting from the skills of an experienced, professional designer.

Knowing you are working with a layout and structure that works means you can focus on adding value for your end user and adding your own unique style.

3 | Money

Once you’ve invested in a good template - and perhaps a course to teach you the fundamentals of using software like Affinity Publisher or Adobe InDesign - you can start to recoup your costs by…creating your own templates!

Each time you change the page layouts, you can save this as a new template. Every time you start a new design project, you will have a growing library of templates to pick from. Saving you both time and money.

And when you save time, you save yourself money. If you want to sell digital planners, you need to be aware of how long it takes you to make one compared to and how many you expect to sell. The quicker you make it, the more profit you earn.

What to look for in a good digital planner template

So, how do you know which template to choose?

Make sure the template designer has set up the template in a way that uses the most important features:

• Master Pages
• Global Swatches
• Text Styles

This is the difference between a document that takes a matter of hours to customise and export to one that can take days or even weeks of frustration.

If you are an aspiring Affinity Publisher user, take a look at this free guide to find out more about these key features.

Best Affinity Publisher Tools for Digital Planner Design | download free guide

Templates and Designing Digital Planners

Whether you are a beginner creating their first digital planner, or a digital stationery small business looking for a better, more productive workflow, using templates is the way to go.

Templates will:

• Help you learn the software while still producing a great end product.
• Save you time and money when designing your own digital planner.
• Add a professional-designer polish to your products.
• And actually make the process of designing a digital planner a more enjoyable experience.

Why not find out more about designing digital planners with templates in Affinity Publisher.

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