Idea File Fall 2024

Feature: Time-Saving Tips | 31

Don’t Be the Keeper of Information Yearbook staff members ask lots of questions, and nothing is more frustrating than answering the same questions over and over again. Before the string of questions starts, establish where staff members can go for answers before coming to you. You should not be their first resource.

inspiration, or you can use the Walsworth pre-designed templates if your staff isn’t quite there yet. The key is keeping elements consistent on every spread. If every page has a different design, the reader doesn’t know what to expect with each turn of the page. Makes sense, right? But you still have to convince your super-creative, novice designers, and with deadlines on the line, you can’t wait for them to learn by failing.

Walsworth offers a growing number of training videos available on our website, but creating your own videos to address specific questions is easy. Before she went on maternity leave, Denielle Gase from Franklin Regional Senior High School created a set of videos using Screencastify and linked the videos to QR codes. She then created one document with the QR codes and topics to share via Google Drive. The videos addressed simple questions about things like uploading images, file naming conventions and more complex design steps specific to their book. When the staff had a question, they would scan the QR codes for a quick answer. HERE’S THE TIP: After you answer the same question four times, create a video. As a new adviser, you likely won’t know which videos you need, so this can help you gauge which questions warrant a video.

HERE’S THE TIP: Show examples of

CHECK OUT OUR Training Videos walsworthyearbooks.com/training-videos

professional publications and point out that every page is not completely different. Walsworth’s Showcase Gallery is a great place to start at walsworthyearbooks.com/ get-inspired . Fonts, graphics and colors are all repeated. Admittedly, they still might not believe you. Your nurturing spirit might be inclined to give them a chance, but unless you truly believe the staff member is talented and very committed, don’t do it. Just like a biology teacher tells students what lab to conduct, you can tell them what layout to use. Even better, you can place the template on the page and use the Freeze Object function in Yearbook 360 – Online Design to prevent a staff member from intentionally or accidentally changing the layout. Templates can also be

If you don’t want to get that techy with it, go old school and create an information board. Post answers to FAQs or establish a protocol that staff members must ask two other people before coming to you with questions. Stop Making It So Hard Sometimes the easy way is the best way. If your book is 100 pages, you do not need to design 50 different layouts. You and your staff will burn out quicker than you can say colophon if they start each layout from a blank page. Of course, every staff member wants to use their creativity to design a unique layout, and how dare you stifle their creativity by suggesting that they use pre-designed templates. It doesn’t take long before all their creative juices have dried up, and you are left to redesign the spreads they have been working on for months. Using templates not only saves you time and focuses their attention on more productive tasks like information gathering, but it also makes for a more visually appealing book. These templates might be created by your editors and pro-designers on staff based off of your design

varied by using the Mirror function to flip the design. Our design program makes the process of creating your projects simple with its intuitive built-in features. Alignment and distribute tools quickly snap objects into place. By setting type styles

and color palettes, students have easy access to the correct fonts and colors for your project. For ultimate efficiency, your Walsworth representative can share time-saving tips and best practices to streamline your yearbook production and unlock the program’s full potential based on your unique needs. I’ve seen too many advisers spend too long on a task that has a quick and easy solution, so rely on your rep’s expertise.

Photo by Sophie Hartley