The Yearbook Blog

Our favorite short cut key. Also known as “undo,” this combination can be used in InDesign, eDesign, Word, most email programs, and after taking a really hard test that you didn’t study for (although we don’t know where to find the keyboard to perform that last one). Other helpful keystrokes include:

• Ctrl/Cmd + S = Save
• Ctrl/Cmd + C = Copy
• Ctrl/Cmd + V = Paste
• Ctrl/Cmd + P = Print
• Arrow keys to nudge elements

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “Z” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

InDesign, the ultimate in layout software. It’s what the professionals use, and chances are you’re not using even half of what it’s capable of. Here are some quick InDesign tips and tricks to get you started:

• Use the eye-dropper tool to copy text treatments in addition to colors. Click on the eyedropper, then click on the text you want to copy. Now drag the eyedropper to highlight the text you want to transform. Voila! You can repeat this on as many text elements as you want. The eyedropper stays full each time.
• Access Photoshop layers within InDesign - Right click on a graphic created in Photoshop, then click “Layer Options”. Here, you can turn on and off the different layers you created in Photoshop. (NOTE: This only works on .psd files with multiple layers.) This is great if you have one graphic that will  be in different colors on different spreads. Simply create one .psd file with all the colors as layers, insert the .psd file onto your InDesign spread, and turn on the color layer that you want to use.
• InDesign Layers - InDesign also has layers. You can lock layers and designate certain layers to be “non-printing.” This is great for templates.
• Place photos inside your text by highlighting the text, and clicking “Type” -> “Create Outlines”. You’ve just turned your text into an object. Now drag a photo into it!
• For more InDesign Tips & Tricks, visit “www.yearbooks.biz” and click “Resources” -> “InDesign Tips & Tricks”

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “I” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Creating cohesion throughout your book requires both a verbal and a visual theme. Here are some tips on using graphics to help with keep your book visually unified:

• After choosing your verbal theme, choose a visual theme that illustrates or matches your concept. For example, if your verbal theme is “Traffic”, your visual theme could be a blurred effect in photoshop which illustrates constant movement, or it could be dotted lines mimicking street dividers. There are many ways to visually illustrate a theme concept. The key is pick only one, or your book will look too messy.
• Have students keep a graphics notebook of ideas they find in magazines, ads, newspaper, menus, websites, etc… which use your graphic element. For example, if your element is “paint splatters,” there are so many ways this could be executed, it would help to narrow it down with an example from a professional publication.
• Once you decide on your graphic element, find a variety of ways to use it throughout the book. Change it for every section, but keep it consistent within the section. For example, if your visual theme is interlocking circles, you could have them go across the entire spread horizontally within Student Life, but for academics, they go vertically and only through 3/4 of the page behind the headline…
• If you haven’t used Photoshop Brushes yet, experiment with these to create your ideal graphic. There are plenty of free brushes available for download online.
• Check out theyearbookblog.com for the 8 most popular graphic elements in design today.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “G” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

DPI, or “dots per inch,” is the challenge most advisers face. Most pictures on the computer screen are 72 DPI, which is fine for a monitor. But to print in a yearbook, you want 300 DPI. When there are too few pixels to represent an image adequately for its size, you end up with photos of people that look like my child made them with Legos. But thankfully, digital camera prices are one of the few things that go down every year. For the best results, stock your classroom with cameras that are at least 5 MP (mega pixels), buy 1 G memory cards, and make sure the camera is set to take the largest file possible.

FYI - eDesign (our online layout software) checks your DPI for you, and provides you with a warning if your photos are in danger of being blurry.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “D” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…