Making a yearbook is a fun and very rewarding project. After all, how else are you and your leavers’ year group going to remember your schooldays? Here’s your ultimate guide on how to make a yearbook using our free online Yearbook Hub builder.
What you’ll need:
A Yearbook Hub account. Yearbook Hub is our fantastically free online builder and team management system. It helps you work collaboratively with your team to create an amazing yearbook design quickly and easily. Get started with a demo account here: www.spc-yearbooks.co.uk/yearbooks/
Who should help you make a yearbook?
- Teacher, or member of staff to oversee, proofread, and approve the yearbook (Yearbook Advisor).
- Editors. These could be other team members, or students who will help manage the project.
- Staff who will be tasked with designing and populating your yearbook with content. Staff can only edit sections assigned to them.
- Photographers will only be able to upload photos.
How to build your yearbook pages
Plan your yearbook page structure. Which pages would you like to use?
- Teacher profile pages
- Student profile pages
- Photo montages
- Awards
… just to name a few of the ‘core’ pages we see used in many yearbooks.
A yearbook flatplan also allows you to pin down the running order of the pages, what content is needed and who should work on which page/section of the yearbook.
Create your yearbook sections and assign each team member
Once you have your Yearbook Hub account, users, and flatplan, it’s time to get stuck in with creating your yearbook sections.
Yearbook sections could be:
- Message from the Head and Deputy Head
- Class 11A
- Class 11B
- Christmas fundraiser photos
- Yearbook Awards
- Trip to Normandy
In the Yearbook Hub dashboard (Home), go to ‘Manage and Design Book’. Editors can use the Yearbook Planning Ladder in the builder to create sections of the book and delegate each section to a different team member.
Imagine if you could hand each section to a different team member to work on. Well, you can! Once a section is set up you can choose a member of your team to allocate it to. Collaboration is a beautiful thing. No-one else will be able to edit that section until it is checked back in, which our customers love!
Add photos to your yearbook project
There are many yearbook page layouts ready for you to use – student profile pages, photo montage/collage pages, teacher pages, etc. Drag and drop these from the layouts tab and start adding your own content.
How can we call this a yearbook without photos?! Gather your snaps and upload them to Yearbook Hub. Neatly organise each year group/class/house into different folders ready to drag and drop them into your fabulous yearbook design!
Design your yearbook
Knock yourself out with a the huge choice of backgrounds, layouts and clipart in Yearbook Hub! Everything is categorised to help you choose the perfect theme. Our in-house professional designers are always adding fresh new content, but you’re in full control of your design destiny – whether you choose one yearbook theme, or multiple themes and styles throughout.
When each yearbook team member has finished their design they can mark it as complete. This lets the advisor know it’s ready to proof and approve – or reject if there are changes to make!
Approve your yearbook for print
Well done, you’ve nailed it! Every section of your yearbook is complete, it has been pawed over and proof-read several times (by several pairs of eyes). Sounds like you’re ready to send your yearbook to print! Contact your SPC Yearbooks Specialist to arrange uploading your files to us to printing and binding.
