Are you interested in creating and selling your own digital planner on Etsy? With the rise of digital planning, it’s becoming more and more popular to use digital planners instead of traditional paper planners.

Not only are they more eco-friendly, but they’re also more convenient and customizable. If you’re looking to start your own digital planner business on Etsy, you’ve come to the right place!

In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the process of creating a digital planner in that you can sell on Etsy, with step-by-step instructions and screenshots to help you along the way.

This blog post specifically explains how to create a digital planner in Apple Keynote.  I chose this program because not only is it free, but you can create the planner and hyperlink in the same program.  I thought this might be easier for beginners.  Let’s get started!

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosures page for more information.

Apple Keynote is a free program, but it is only available to iOS users. If you do not already have this app, go ahead download it from the Apple App Store.

When you open Apple Keynote, your screen will probably not have list of recent files, like mine does. Ignore my files for the purposes of this tutorial. Click the “New Document” button in the bottom right corner to create a new presentation.

Select “choose a theme” and select “basic white”. Click the “Create” button to get started.

Text is automatically included in the first slide. Delete all three text boxes, for a clean, white slide. You don’t want any text on the slide at this point.

• • Click the “Document” button in the top left of the Keynote screen. Scroll down to “Slide size” and select “custom slide size” from the drop down menu.
  • Change width to 935 pixels. Change length to 650 pixels. Click “OK”.

I like to make the “surface” that my planner is laying on light gray, but you can make it whatever your heart desires. Just be sure it’s easy to distinguish between the background of the planner and your planner tabs, which tend to be more colorful.

• • Select the paintbrush (“Format” button at the left top of the Keynote screen to pick the background color for your planner.

Once I have selected my background color, I am going to create the “paper” of my planner. Select the “Shape” button at the top of the screen. We are going to add a square shape under the “Basic“ tab. Tap the square shape to select it now.

Click on the “Format” button at the top of the screen to change the square color to white. Scroll down to the “Current Fill” section, and select “Color Fill” from the drop-down menu. Pick the color you want to use!

Expand the white square to cover about half the slide. Duplicate this shape to create the other half of our planner, as if we are looking at an open book.

Be sure to leave room at the top of the screen and the right side of the screen for tabs. Leave a space in the middle of the two “pages” for the planners spine (forgo this step If you don’t wish to add notebook rings.

• Add a shadow to the pages (Format button at top of screen > scroll down to “shadow” under the “style tab” and pick the shadow you like to make your pages more realistic.

Learn how to make your own digital planner with this free PLR ebook, then sell it and make money.

Next we are going to add tabs to the right side of the planner. I like to do 12 tabs for the 12 months of the year.

It takes some time to adjust the tabs so you can fit all 12 and they all be the same size. Be patient. You can do this.

To add a tab, click the “+” at the top of the screen and select a square shape again. I then drag the square to make a rectangle shape.

You can make your tabs whatever color you wish.

Repeat this process 12 times for the 12 month tabs, and line them on the right side of the slide, so that part of the tabs are hanging off of the “paper” of the planner.

Once you get the first tab the shape you want it, you can click on the tab to select it, right-click to copy and then paste.

I also add shadows to each of my tabs for a more realistic appearance.

I did the same thing to add tabs at the top of the page. These can be whatever you want, depending on what you want to include in your planner. Examples could include budget sheets, fitness planners and your planner index.

To rotate the rectangle upwards for tabs at the top, click on the tab to select it, click on the paint brush at the top of the screen. Select the “arrange“ tab, and “rotate” the rectangle 90 degrees.

Add as many tabs at the top of your screen as you wish.

It’s easier to go ahead and decide what you want to include at the beginning of the planner-making process because once you have the skeleton of your planner made, you can just copy and paste slides, rather than having to do all this work for every slide.

You know the drill. Click on the “+” at the top of the screen, select the square shape. This is going to be the top sheet of our planner.

Change the fill color to white and make it the same size as the other “paper”. Just lay it on top, covering the tabs, except what is sticking out at the edges of the planner.

Click the “shape” button and select a circle from the basic tab. Minimize the size of the circle until it Is about the size of the hole in regular notebook paper, where the notebook rings run through the paper. I made mine 5 pt x 5 pt. I added one of these small circles to both “sheets” of my planner paper (see image above).

Then I clicked the “shape button again to select a curved line. “Make a connection” between two circles that are across from each other (see image above).

This step is optional and really just for aesthetic purposes. If you are just starting out and this feels too overwhelming for you, skip this step.

Use the shapes and text icons, like you have been doing, to design the content for your digital planner pages. Look through all of the shapes under the shapes icon to see what is available to you.

There are quite a few icons that you can use in your design.

Use the shapes and text icons, like you have been doing, to design the content for your digital planner pages. Look through all of the shapes under the shapes icon to see what is available to you.

There are quite a few icons that you can use in your design.

Hyperlinking in a digital planner, allows you to create links between the planner pages. This makes navigation through your digital planner so much easier and smoother, because your don’t have to scroll through every page to get to the page you want.

For example, a hyperlinked planner will allow you to click on the “Jan” tab in the photo above, and you will be taken to the month of January.

To create a hyperlink In Keynote, right click on the text or object you wish you make clickable. Select “add link” from the drop down menu that appears.

Select “slide”. Then chose the slide option that allows you to pick a number (the last option).

Enter the slide number that you want to link to (for example, I would select the slide that the calendar for the month of January is located, for the “Jan” tab hyperlink.

Like this article?  Feel free to share it on Pinterest!  Thank you for hanging out with me and reading this blog post.  Shout out to me in the comments to let me know what you think.  Do you have something you want to learn how to do, related to blogging or making digital planners to sell?  Let me know!  

Click below for the finished product:

Related: 2024 PLR Pink Digital Planner