You may have heard the term “digital planner” and wondered “what exactly is a digital planner?” Well, a digital planner is simply a digital version of a paper planner. It imitates the look and style of a paper planner, but it’s all digital which means it’s downloaded and stored on your devices like your cell phone and iPad. 

Digital planners are increasing in popularity so if you’re a designer, they’re a great product to add to your Etsy shop digital products. People love digital planners for their convenience- you don’t have to lug around a traditional planner, you just have to have your phone or iPad with you to access your schedule. They’re also popular for being easy on the environment, no trees cut down to make a digital planner. Also, a digital planner tends to be cheaper than a traditional paper planner. Some designer paper planners can cost big bucks, while a digital planner is a chic, convenient and economical option. 

People use their digital planners just like they use a traditional planner. So what’s the difference between a regular PDF planner and a digital planner? Well, a regular PDF planner has no hyperlinks and is mostly used for printing, reading and storing information. A digital planner, on the other hand, is designed to be interactive and clickable. It’s imported into a note-taking app in a tablet or iPad so you can insert text by typing. You can also get the feel of handwriting like in a traditional planner by using a Stylus to handwrite notes in your digital planner on your iPad.

And lest you think that a digital planner will be just some bland white background with black squares, digital planners come in all styles and colors, all you have to do is choose the template that matches your taste. 

For those who want to design their own digital planner, you’ll need some design software to make your magic. The two main contenders are Apple Keynote and Affinity Publisher. Here’s the lowdown on both:

1. Claim to fame of each

Both software have their strengths. 

Affinity Publisher is a new 2D publishing program that allows you to design layouts for things like magazines, eBooks and yes, digital planners. 

• New to the market and making waves for design software legends like InDesign. 

• It’s less complex than InDesign yet more simple and robust than Apple’s Keynote program.

• It offers more design options and customization than Apple Keynote which is great for designers who want to flex their creative muscle.

Apple Keynote is…

• This program is known for its knockout presentation slides.

• In the past few years, aspiring designers have started using it to create digital planners. 

2. The Price

For many designers, price is a big factor in whether or not they use a program. 

Affinity Publisher is winning fans for its low price of $49.99 while their iPad version is only $19.99. People also like that it’s a one-time payment but it gives you access to all future updates. If you’re not sure about making a purchase, they offer a free trial. 

Apple Keynote is free for Mac users, so that wins a big audience right there. For those with Windows, they can use an iCloud version, however, the iCloud version has limited options for designers. 

3. Hardware requirement

It’s important to know which hardware will be required in order to run the program you’re buying. 

Affinity Publisher works with both Mac and Windows. Other serif programs have an app on the iPad so they will probably come up with an app on the iPad soon- at least we hope so!

Apple Keynote works only on Mac computers and iPad. The iPad version is very limited as well as the iCloud version, so they’re not ideal for designing your awesome digital planner. The great thing about it, though, is that you can sync between devices. For example, you can design the planner on your laptop and then edit it on your iPad while you’re on the go. Those running a digital planner business know how at times this can be a lifesaver for keeping up productivity.

4. Adding Hyperlinks

If you designed a digital planner before you know that adding hyperlinks to your design is half of the battle and the most time consuming task. 

Apple Keynote – I’ve been using this program for the last 3 years, creating over 300 digital planners, so I know from experience that it has by far the best hyperlink feature. 

• It’s fast! 

• You can move pages without resetting the links- super timesaving not to have to do all that manual resetting over and over again. 

• Duplicating pages and new links will automatically assign to the new pages. 

• You’re able to view which shape or text has links to review your design and make sure you’re not missing anything.  

Affinity Publisher 

• It’s just a tad slow. 

• You can’t duplicate pages and links together which means having to add them manually. 

• You have to reset the links- a rather time-sucking manual task.

• You can’t view which shape or text has links which makes it hard to review your work before finishing. 

How to add hyperlinks in Affinity Publisher?

• Select the text or shape you want to convert to clickable hyperlinks. 

• Right-click and select “ Interactive” then “Insert Hyperlink” 

• Select page. 

• Type in the page number that you want to be linked to. 

How to add hyperlinks in Apple Keynote program?

•  Select the text or shape you want to convert to clickable hyperlinks. 

•  Right-click and select “Link”. 

• Select Slide. 

•  Type in the page number that you want to be linked to. 

5. File size and Exporting

Affinity Publisher has eight options for exporting files. It does a great job of compressing the file without losing the quality of the work. 

The best possible option - you’ll be able to find out how big the file size is before exporting and can reduce the size as needed. This is a huge plus for designers. Smaller files upload super quickly onto Etsy and, trust me, once you finish designing your digital planner, you want to get it out there as soon as possible. Sitting around waiting for the file to upload is just torture, so it’s a big benefit to just create a digital planner and upload it fast, all without sacrificing image quality.  

Apple Keynote

Many digital planner designers really struggle with the file size of Apple Keynote exporting. Keynote tends to produce large files that will consume a lot of your iPad storage space. This is a problem for designers who have many digital products and find themselves running out of storage space fast!

Also, Etsy sellers have a hard time uploading the digital file to sell on Etsy (Etsy has a 20 MB limit), so this is a big issue to consider when you really just want to just upload your file and start selling. 

👉 Looking for more design programs for you to create your digital planner with? Check out my blog 4 Programs That Make Digital Planner a Breeze (+ What Exactly is a Digital Planner Anyway?) where I compare top digital design programs based on the experiences of a digital product and planner designer (me!). 

Final thoughts!

Which one to choose when making your digital planner? If you’re serious about starting a digital planner business, then I highly recommend using Affinity Publisher over Apple Keynote.

Affinity Publisher is reasonably priced, allows you to compress files you’re exporting to ease up on your storage and allows you to upload to your Etsy store more quickly. It’s also more likely to level up your product with professional design options. 

Need some guidance on how to design your digital planner and sell it? Check out my signature program Digital Planner Academy where I walk you step by step through how to create and sell digital planners using Affinity Publisher and Apple Keynote programs. You’ll learn a design skill to create + sell digital product and start a an online business with digital products. Click here to learn more.