How to Make Your Own Yearbook

Yearbooks are used to commemorate special events, achievements and moments in time. Typically yearbooks, also referred to as annuals, are created by high schools to be distributed to students and faculty at the end of the academic calendar year. However, they are also created by businesses, sporting teams and elementary schools. When you take great pictures, create strong write-ups that capture the spirit of your organization and lay your design out professionally, you are on your way to creating a yearbook that others will value and enjoy.

Things You'll Need

• Computer

Instructions

1. Choose a theme. Ask members of your organization or school to volunteer to join the yearbook committee and help build content for the yearbook. Brainstorm for themes that can be captured in three to 10 words. Make sure that the theme captures the spirit of your organization. For example, if you are creating a middle school yearbook, you could use, "Bright Days Now and Forever."

2. Create content. Divide the yearbook into categories such as class highlights, academic clubs, awards and sports. Add insights from the organization leader such as the high school principal. Consider including quotes from historical figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein or Maya Angelou.

   Assign members to interview administrators about popular items that impact your organization. Keep the questions short, light and fun. For example, if you are creating a high school yearbook you could ask the senior guidance counselors, "What was your most rewarding experience while working this year's graduating class?" Include the most compelling one to two sentences gleaned from their answers in the yearbook.

3. Include outcomes of voting categories. Create an online balloting system that members can access with a login name and password. Upload categories such as "Most Likely to Succeed", "Funniest", "Most Courageous", "Greatest Risk Taker" and "Most Talented" for members to vote on and choose winners. Type the name of each winner at the bottom of the category name in the yearbook. Include a funny quote from each winner directly below their name.

4. Add photographs. Use the services of a professional photographer. Schedule days and times to take photographs of everyone in the organization. Decide on a standard sitting for the photographs so the yearbook member photo section is uniform. Take additional photographs of organization members while they are participating in activities such as competing in a sport, attending a club event, meeting with a client, enjoying a picnic or learning in a classroom. Include a photograph of each voting category winner. Keep in mind that you can also set aside time to take the photographs yourself using a digital camera. Make sure that the photographs are 200 dots per inch (dpi) or higher in resolution.

5. Layout the material. Use desktop publishing software such as Microsoft Publisher, QuarkXPress or Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 (see resources) to edit your yearbook including dragging and dropping photographs into frames, resizing pictures and formatting borders, headings and quotes. Keep in mind that you can also visit websites such as Expressly Yours and Yearbook Yourself (see the Resources section below) to lay out your yearbook. Note that some of the online websites may require that you place your printing order with them before they allow you to use their online tools.

6. Print your yearbook. Compare prices and turnaround times for various printers in your area. Refer to directories such as MacRae's Bluebook to search for printers using one source. Keep in mind that you can also print your own yearbook using a copier at the organization where you work or using a high speed copier at an office superstore like Staples, Office Max or Office Depot.

Resources

• Expressly Yours
• Yearbook Yourself
• MacRae's Bluebook -- Directory of Yearbook Printers
• Microsoft Publisher
• Adobe Acrobat Professional 9