How to make a digital planner, step by step

What a digital planner is

A digital planner is a PDF with clickable links. The buyer opens it in an annotation app on a tablet, writes on the pages with a stylus, and taps tabs to jump between months, weeks and sections. The links are what make it a digital planner rather than a printable on a screen.

How to create a digital planner in eight steps

1. Plan the structure on paper. List every section and page: contents, year overview, twelve months, weekly pages, notes and trackers. Sketch which tab goes where. A clear map now saves hours of relinking later.
2. Choose a page size. Pick a landscape or portrait page shaped roughly like a tablet screen, and use the same size for every page.
3. Design the master pages. Make one of each page type: a month, a week, a notes page. Put the tab bar in exactly the same place on every page, and leave writing spaces generous enough for handwriting with a stylus.
4. Duplicate pages to build the planner. Copy each master for every month and week, then change the labels. For an undated planner, leave the dates blank for the buyer to fill in.
5. Add the links. Canva lets you link a text box or shape to another page of the same design, and most design tools have a similar option. Link every tab, every month on the year overview, and a home button back to the contents page. A transparent shape over a small tab gives a bigger area to tap.
6. Export as a PDF. Use a PDF export, then open the file and tap a few links to check they survived. Compress large images so the file stays a sensible size; PDFs on the Free plan can be up to 50 MB.
7. Test it in an annotation app. Import the PDF into Goodnotes or another annotation app. Many apps follow links only in a viewing mode or with a particular tool selected, rather than while you are writing, so learn how yours works. Tap every tab and link, write on a few pages, and zoom in to check the pages stay sharp. Then open it in a desktop PDF reader too.
8. Add a how-to-use page. Put it at the front: which apps you tested it in, how to import it, and how to make the links work.

Make it worth buying

• A contents page that links to every section
• Tabs in the same place on every page
• Enough room to write comfortably with a stylus
• Every link tested, including the last week of the year
• An undated edition, so it can be started any time

Sell your digital planner

Make preview images of the year overview, a month, a week, and the planner open in an app with handwriting on it. Put "digital planner" and "hyperlinked PDF" in the title, and say on the product page which apps you tested it in and that it is a download. Then list it on Bookstorez, a global marketplace where buyers browse planners alongside ebooks, printables, workbooks and templates. See how selling on Bookstorez works.

For which planner to make, read planner ideas. For product pages and printable editions, read how to sell planners online. Selling an editable version too? How to sell Canva templates covers template links.

What selling on Bookstorez costs

Bookstorez is a global marketplace where creators sell ebooks, printables, planners, workbooks and templates, and buyers browse every seller's work in one catalogue. The Free plan has no monthly charge: 3 live products and 10 drafts, at 12% + 30¢ per sale with card fees and tax handling included. The fee is the same whether a buyer arrives through your own link or finds you in the catalogue.

Creator and Pro add featured weeks, which put your products in featured placements across the site, and more books a month from the built-in AI ebook generator. See every plan side by side.

Keep planning

Read digital products to sell, how to sell digital products, how to sell ebooks online or where to sell digital products for free.