How do I design presentations with Cloze and Canva?

This guide walks you through connecting Cloze as a Canva data source and mapping text and image elements to create a presentation.

Before you set up your first Canva template to use autofill:

1. Start with a brand template. Canva has extensive documentation on how to publish designs as brand templates. Once you have completed the autofill setup, you will publish your template so anyone in your organization using Canva Enterprise can use it with Cloze.
2. Make sure you have connected Canva to your Cloze account. Follow these instructions to connect your Cloze account.

Building presentations with Cloze and Canva

Cloze builds finished presentations (CMAs, buyer tours, listing presentations, and property reviews) from your branded Canva templates, filling them with your property data automatically. You set up the templates once, and Cloze reuses them each time it builds a presentation.

Once your templates are live, agents create specific presentations from them (e.g, a CMA or listing presentation or a buyer tour.

1. Navigate to a property and tap on the Market button
2. Select Create Presentation
3. Select the presentation type

This guide covers:

• What you can build
• How it works
• Three types of Canva templates (you'll use these to assemble a final presentation)
• Naming your templates (so they bind together as a set)
• How Cloze assembles the presentation
• Sharing one set across variants (e.g., 1 - agent and 2 - agent versions)
• Filing Canva templates with property data from Cloze
• Testing
• Troubleshooting

What you can build

How it works (the big picture)

Two pieces do all the work:

1. Templates. You design branded pages in Canva with empty "placeholders," blanks waiting to be filled.
2. Names. You give each template a special name that tells Cloze its job.

When an agent generates a presentation, Cloze fills the placeholders with real property data and stitches the templates together into a finished presentation.

Think of your templates as fill-in-the-blank forms. Cloze fills the blanks and puts the pages in the right order.

Three types of templates

Every presentation is assembled from up to three kinds of templates. Each has a different job.

Property templates repeat as needed.

Notes:

1. You don't always need all three. A simple buyer tour often uses just an outline and a detail template.
2. Every template in a set needs at least one autofill value, or Cloze can't use it. At a minimum, the outline needs a value that inserts the agent, such as agent.name.

Naming your templates

Every template name has three parts, separated by two vertical bars:

Type | Name | Role

Example:

Listing | Modern | @5

Naming pairs the set together

All three names share the same middle word (Modern), so Cloze knows they belong to one set. The last part is a short code that tells Cloze what job the template does when assembling the presentation.

Here's what each part does.

Only the middle part is visible to agents. The first part (type) and the last part (role) are instructions for Cloze that stay behind the scenes — agents never see them when they create a presentation from Cloze.

Part 1: Type (what kind of presentation)

Put one of these words in the first part. (Use just one to keep it clear.)

If two type words appear, tour "wins", but it's simplest to never combine them.

Part 2: Name (what agents see)

For outlines, this is the label agents pick from when generating. For summary and detail templates, the name (e.g, Modern in the example below) has to start with the same word as the outline so Cloze knows they belong together.

For example, an agent could pick either:

• "Modern - 1 agent", or
• "Modern - 2 agents"

And Cloze would also bind with the same "Modern" property pages. (More on this below.)

Part 3: Role (the template's job)

The last part is a short code that tells Cloze what job the template does in the deck. There are three:

Like the type, this code is for Cloze only. Agents never see it.

Putting all three parts together

Example: a full set of names

Listing CMA | Modern | @5     <- the outline (placeholder on page 5).
Listing CMA | Modern | 3@     <- summary, subject plus 3 comps per page ("3 up").
Listing CMA | Modern | 1@     <- detail, repeats once per property.

Listing CMA | Modern - 1 agent | @5

The presentation outline with a placeholder on page 5. The summary and detail pages are inserted here.

Listing CMA | Modern | 3@

Subject plus 3 comps per page ("3 up").

Listing CMA | Modern | 1@

Property detail with one property per template.

How Cloze assembles the presentation

Cloze builds a presentation from up to three templates. The outline holds a placeholder page marked @N; Cloze inserts the summary and detail pages at that page.

The outline is a wrapper. Its placeholder page is an empty slot. Cloze fills that slot with all the property pages, and the outline's other pages wrap around it: the pages before the placeholder go first, the pages after go last.

Inside that slot, the order is always: summary pages first, then detail pages.

• The summary repeats until every property is covered. Six properties with a 3-per-page summary = two summary pages.
• The detail repeats once per property. Six properties = six detail pages.

Example: a listing deck for 6 properties, using the "Modern" set above, where the outline is 6 pages with the placeholder on page 5.

Thirteen pages, built automatically from three templates.

Sharing one set across variants

Often you want two versions of the same presentation: say, one with a single agent's contact info and one with two. You don't want to duplicate the property pages for each. You just want two outlines that share the same detail and summary templates.

The rule: the shared name has to come first. Summary and detail templates bind to an outline when their name is the start of the outline's name.

So name your variants with the shared part first and the difference last:

Listing | Modern - 1 agent  | @5
Listing | Modern - 2 agents | @5
Listing | Modern            | 1@   <- serves both (linked by "Modern")
Listing | Modern            | 3@   <- serves both (linked by "Modern")

What the agent sees

Agents pick "Modern - 1 agent" or "Modern - 2 agents." Either way, they get the same "Modern" designs.

Filling Canva templates with property data from Cloze

A placeholder is an element in a Canva template that you want Cloze to fill with real property information, like a photo or a value such as the price. You map a field to each placeholder so Cloze knows what information to insert, and where. That mapping is a short instruction called an autofill value.

In a Canva presentation, an autofill value has two parts:

1. The prefix: which property. It points to one property in the presentation, such as the subject listing or the first comparable sale.
2. The field: which piece of data. Written after a dot, it names what to pull from that property, such as the price or the main photo.

For example, subject.value fills the placeholder with the subject property's price: the prefix subject picks the property, and the field .value picks the data.

The rest of this section covers the prefix, choosing the right property. You add the field (.value, .name, and so on) after it.

Which property to point at

Then add .field    to pull a value: subject.name, comps[1].value, property.exact-bedrooms.

Two rules decide which one

1. Repeating page → property. Fixed page → name the property. A 1@  detail template repeats once per property, so it uses property and Cloze supplies the right one each time. A fixed page (a map, a side-by-side summary, the subject's own page) names the property directly: subject, comps[1], properties[2].
2. Tour → positional. Everything else → subject + comps. A buyer tour has no subject, so use properties[N]  and property. A seller presentation, buyer presentation, CMA, or property review has a subject and comparables, so use subject and comps[N].

The two naming styles are the same list

properties is the subject followed by every comp, so the names line up:

The comp number is always one behind the position, because the subject takes the first slot.

The exact set for each presentation type

For the references and example fields to use on each template, by presentation type (buyer tour, seller, buyer, property review), see: What autofill combination should I use for each presentation type?.

Note: A CMA isn't its own type. It's the subject-vs-comps comparison, built as a seller or buyer presentation.

Labeling properties on a shared map

When several properties share one map, each pin gets a letter (A, B, C…). property.mapLabel (or comps[0].mapLabel, properties[1].mapLabel) gives that letter, so text on the page can name the right pin.

The fields you can put after the dot (address, price, beds, baths, photos, agent details, and more) are extensive, with formatting options like fallbacks, suffixes, bullets, and qrcode.

See How do I add Cloze data fields to Canva elements? for the full list.

For maps, see the companion page, Maps: sizing the placeholder and setting the autofill value.

Real example, start to finish: a buyer tour

A buyer is touring 4 properties. You want a cover, a map showing all four with the driving route, then a page per property, and a closing page.

Templates you need, just two:

WR Tour | Tour Luxury - 1 agent | @4    <- outline, placeholder on page 4.
WR Tour | Standard | 1@                 <- detail, repeats once per property.

No summary template needed. The tour map is just a normal page inside the outline.

Set up the outline (5 pages):

What Cloze builds (8 pages):

Notice the tour map on page 3 shows every property at once, so it lives in the outline. The per-property detail pages repeat, so they're the placeholder content.

Test before you share

Before you hand a template set to your team, build a few test presentations yourself.

Run through this checklist.

• Test several different properties and mix them up. Don't judge a template on one property. Try a listing with lots of photos and one with barely any. Try a five-bedroom house and a studio condo. Variety is what surfaces the gaps.
• Match the region. A map zoom that looks perfect downtown can look empty out in the country. Test an urban set and a suburban or rural set, so your maps and layouts hold up everywhere your agents work.
• Does everything fill as expected? Check every placeholder. Any blanks, cut-off text, or missing photos?
• Are pages inserted in the correct position? Confirm the summary and detail pages land where they should, and that your cover and closing wrap correctly around the property pages.
• Can you see the presentation in Cloze? Open the finished deck in Cloze — not just in Canva — to confirm it generated and displays properly.
• Have you added fallbacks for missing data? Real listings have gaps: a property with no bath count, a listing with a single photo. Fallbacks fill those gaps so they don't leave an ugly blank. Add one to any placeholder that might come back empty.

Fallbacks

Add a fallback after a value using a vertical bar.

Real examples:

The difference between "--"   and zero:   is small but useful. "--"   covers a missing value. zero:      also catches a real 0 — so a property listed with 0 baths shows "no baths" instead of "0".

If a test turns up something off, see Troubleshooting below.

Share your templates with your team

Now that you've thoroughly tested, share the set so your agents can use it.

Note: Sharing Brand Templates is an Admin / brand-designer task in Canva. If you can't publish a template or change its sharing, ask your Canva team admin.

This is the last step, and the one people most often miss, because when a template isn't shared, it fails silently. Just blank or missing pages. You've already confirmed the templates work; now make sure every one of them is shared.

In Canva, when you publish a Brand Template, you choose who it's shared with:

Share every template in the set the same way. One unshared template breaks the whole deck.

Two more things to remember:

• Edits don't go live until you republish. Canva saves changes as a draft. Republish (Brand → Brand Templates → Unpublished changes), or Cloze keeps using the old version.
• Templates only work inside your team. External or public sharing isn't supported. Keep everything in the team account.

Troubleshooting

• Pages came out blank, or the deck didn't assemble. Almost always template sharing. Check that every template in the set is shared with your team in Canva. This fails silently, so it's the first thing to rule out.
• I edited a template, but Cloze used the old version. Your edit is still a draft. Republish it in Canva (Brand → Brand Templates → Unpublished changes).
• The placeholder page didn't get replaced. Check two things: the @N   number matches a real page in the outline (a 5-page outline can't have @7  ), and the summary/detail template names start with the same word as the outline name.
• Properties never showed up. You may be missing a detail template, or the names don't match by prefix. Confirm the detail template's name is the start of the outline's name.
• The name looks right, but nothing works. Retype the name by hand with single spaces around each bar. Stray double spaces or copied-in odd characters can stop Cloze from reading the name.

Glossary

• Template: a branded page you design in Canva for Cloze to reuse.
• Placeholder: a blank in a template that Cloze fills with real data.
• Outline: the skeleton template (cover, intro, closing) with one placeholder page.
• Summary template: shows several properties side by side; repeats to cover all of them.
• Detail template: shows one property, across one or more pages; repeats once per property.
• Subject: the main property (usually the one being listed).
• Comps: comparable properties, used for comparison.
• Autofill value: the short instruction you type into a placeholder.
• Republish: pushing a Canva edit live so Cloze sees the new version.