Organising a Yearbook
The following guide offers a structured step by step approach that will ensure you successfully complete your interactive multimedia yearbook on CD. Should you have any further queries, please get in touch with us through the contact us page.
1) Start early
Once you decide on an interactive multimedia yearbook CD, make sure you start organising as soon as possible - the best time is the beginning of the academic year as starting a yearbook with exams looming can be unfair on pupils/students. It is possible to put together ‘last minute’ yearbooks, but the more time you have to consider what photos, video and text you want, the better the yearbook will be.
A year group member’s contribution can take as little as one hour to complete.
2) Contact someone in authority at your School/College/University
Although this is not always necessary, we prefer you to have the approval of your school/college and to have their support. If you are lucky, they may even help to pay for your yearbook. If your yearbook is to include pupils/students under the age of eighteen, you must inform the head of the school and the head of their year, as written permission will be required from their parents/guardians. In this instance, only a member of the teaching staff will be eligible to apply for a yearbook.
Whoever makes the payment for the yearbook will be referred to as the Editor. The Editor must be aged eighteen or over and will be required to make payments using a debit/credit card. The Editor has editorial and censorship rights as they are responsible for the overall contents of the yearbook - see Terms of use agreement.
3) Determine your year group’s enthusiasm for a yearbook on CD
Find out how enthusiastic your year group is to have a yearbook as there may be year group members who will drop out midway through the project. This is not a problem as there are no deposits involved and you can create as many year group member pages as you want and delete the unwanted ones when you come to finalise and pay for your yearbook - you only pay for the pages you keep.
There are no charges for incomplete or unwanted yearbooks.
4) Nominate yearbook sub-editors
Your nominated editor will need to consider suitable members to nominate as sub-editors. Sub-editors can access and edit pages of the yearbook that contain: additional articles, voting, questions, CD print design, etc.
The editor will be responsible for:
• Registering the yearbook
• Receiving the yearbook and entering the names & email addresses of all members
• Issuing members with login details - our system prints & emails these details for you
• Monitoring progress and keeping in touch with members via the email system
• Closing the yearbook and editing its contents for suitable viewing as appropriate
• Submitting the payment to Yearbooks4Computers via debit/credit card
• Receiving and distributing the interactive yearbook CD to year group members
5) Login & start your new yearbook
The editor logs in to the new yearbook and enters each member’s name and email address - these details can be copied and pasted from an existing spreadsheet or Yearbooks4Computers can do this for you. The editor then sends login details to members via the system’s email facility - there is also a facility for the editor to print off login details for posting purposes.
Members can now log in to their yearbook page and enter photos, text and video and complete questionnaires and vote on awards decided upon by their editor & sub-editors. Editor & sub-editors can add extra photos, video and text of year group events and occasions, and also create a print design for the CD.
6) Close the yearbook and submit the payment
The editor will have set a closing date for entries into the yearbook - this date is displayed on all members’ logins to remind them. Once this date arrives the editor can close and edit the yearbook and remove any unwanted pages - payment is then made to Yearbooks4Computers via debit/credit card.
Receive your Yearbook CD for distribution to year group members
Once the yearbook editor has received your yearbook on CD, it simply requires distributing to the year group members for them to enjoy.
If you have chosen Yearbook Service 1, each year group member will be issued with their own yearbook CD printed in colour using your year group’s own design.
If you have chosen Yearbook Service 2, your yearbook editor will receive a single yearbook CD printed in colour using your year group’s own print design. This will need to be copied for each year group member - although it is time consuming, this service does save significantly on costs.